The Expression And Significance Of EMT Associated Proteins In Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma （OSCC） is one of the mostcommon cancers in oral and maxillofacial malignant tumor. Metastasis is the mostcommon cause of disease failure and mortality for OSCC after surgical treatment. Inrecent years, the current study is focused on epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)hypothesis, as candidate EMT markers, E-cadherin and Vimentin positive cancer cellsin vitro shows highly correlated with the growth, metastasis of OSCC cancer cells.However, there is a little evidence for the expression of EMT in oral SCC tissue. Invitro environments are not as complex as vivo environments. If we pretend toinvestigate the molecular mechanisms of EMT in OSCC development and metastasisand find new prevention and treatment targets of OSCC, vivo experiment is necessory.Objective: We detected the expression pattern of EMT ossociated proteinsincluding E-cadherin and Vimentin in OSCC tissues, and develop the roles of EMT inOSCC invasion and metastasis.Methods: Immunohistochemistry stain was used to detect the expression ofE-cadherin and Vimentin proteins in27OSCC tissues. Data were analyzed using SPSSversion16.0for windows.Results:1. The expressionThe tumor cells in22(81.45%) of the27specimens were positive for E-cadherin.The tumor cells in17(62.96%) of the27specimens were positive for Vimentin.2. The correlation of E-cadherin and Vimentin expression to the clinicopathologyparameters(1) The correlation of E-cadherin and Vimentin expression to the pathologicalcharacteristics There was a positive relationship between the expression of E-cadherin and OSCChistological differentiation (P<0.05).; While, There was no relationship between theexpression of Vimentin and OSCC histological differentiation(P>0.05).(2) The correlation of E-cadherin and Vimentin expression to TNM stageThere was no relationship between the expression of E-cadherin and OSCC TNMstage(P>0.05); There was a negative relationship between the expression of Vimentinand OSCC TNM stage (P<0.05).(3) The correlation of E-cadherin and Vimentin expression to lymphatic metastasisThere was no relationship between the expression of E-cadherin and OSCClymphatic metastasis(P>0.05); There was a negative relationship between theexpression of Vimentin and OSCC lymphatic metastasis (P<0.05).(4) The relationship between E-cadherin and VimentinThere was no relationship between the expression of E-cadherin andVimentin(P>0.05). However, low expression of E-cadherin and high expression ofVimentin in OSCC lead to a high lymphatic metastasis rate (100%);and high expressionof E-cadherin and low expression of Vimentin in OSCC lead to a low lymphaticmetastasis rate(12.5%).Conclusions:1.The altered expression of E-cadherin and Vimentin may take important roles inthe development of OSCC, suggest that there is EMT which is involved in invasion andmetastasis OSCC in the development of OSCC.2. The expression of E-cadherin showed highly correlated with tumordifferentiation, suggest that these EMT markers may be important factors related totumor differentiation of OSCC.3. Low expression of E-cadherin and high expression of Vimentin might haveadvantages for the metastasis of OSCC. The expression of E-cadherin and Vimentinmay be important markers reflecting the biological behaviors of invasion and metastasisin OSCC. The examination of both E-cadherin and Vimentin may be used for theprognosis of OSCC.