Expression Of MMP-7 And C-myc In Human Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma And Its Clinical Significances

Objective:Oral squamous cell carcinoma which listed OSCC is a common malignancy in the tumor of head and neck, accounting for oral cancer in the first place, a higher grade of malignancy, more invasive growth and metastasis. Researching of MMP-7 and c-myc is a hot topic of tumor development, invasion and metastasis research. MMP-7 is one of the matrilysin which has high protein solubility and broad substrate specificity. It can activate a variety of extracellular matrix and play an importmant role in tumor angiogenesis. Research shows that MMP-7 can be expressed in a variety of tumor tissues, and closely related to the tumor development, the hemato -genous metastasis and lymph node metastasis. C-myc oncogene is a nuclear protein carcinoid gene, located in human chromosome 8q24. Encoding c-myc protein as a transcription factor involved in cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and other important ways. Imbalance in the expression of c-myc is the main reason for various apoptosis which related to the occurrence of cancer. In our study, we want to detect the expressions of MMP-7 and c-myc in OSCC and the correlation of their expressions to clinicopathological parameters, so as to explore the roles of MMP-7 and c-myc in OSCC development and clinical significance. We also expect that the results of our research on the mechanism of OSCC can provide us new clues, and provide a theoretical basis for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the OSCC.Methods:Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expressions of MMP-7 and c-myc in 49 cases of OSCC and 5 cases of normal oral mucosa. Spss 10.0 was used to analyze the correlation of the MMP-7 and c-myc expressions to clinicopathological characteristics (sex, age, pathologicaltype, lymph node metastasis, T stage).Results:1.The expression of MMP-7 and c-myc in oral squamous cell carcinoma tissue: The positive rate of MMP-7 in OSCC is 83.7%(41/49) and the positive rate of c-myc in OSCC is 77.6%(38/49).2.The correlation of MMP-7 expression to the clinicopathological characteristics in oral squamous cell carcinoma: In 49 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma, the expression of MMP-7 protein in lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than those without lymph node metastasis (93.6%vs73.1%, P<0.05).The positive rate of MMP-7 in T3-T4 oral squamous cell carcinoma was significantly higher than that in T1-T2(95.4%/vs74.1%, P<0.05). In the oral squamous cell carcinoma, patients with well-differentiated, moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated, the positive rate of MMP-7 significantly reduced with the division increased(73.7%, 83.3%and 94.4%, respectively), (P<0.05). The positive rate of MMP-7 in male and female patients were 83.9% and 83.3%(P>0.05), showed no significant difference. In the different age of the oral squamous cell carcinoma, the expression of MMP-7 was also no significant difference(P>0.05).3.The correlation of c-myc expression to the clinicopathological characte -ristics in oral squamous cell carcinoma: In 49 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma, the expression of c-myc protein in lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than those without lymph node metastasis(91.3%vs65.4%, P<0.05). The positive rate of c-myc in T1-T2 and T3-T4 oral squamous cell carcinoma was 74.1% and 81.8%, (P>0.05), showed no significant difference. In the oral squamous cell carcinoma patients with well-differentiated, moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated, the positive rate of c-myc significantly reduced with the division increased(63.2%, 83.3% and 88.9%, respectively), (P<0.05). The positive rate of c-myc in male and female patients were 77.4%and77.8%(P>0.05), showed no significant difference. In the different age of the oral squamous cell carcinoma, the expression of c-myc was also no significant difference(P>0.05).4.The correlation of MMP-7 expression to c-myc expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma: The positive expression of MMP-7 in positive expression of c-myc was higher than that in the negative expression. Apositive correlation was observed between the expression levels of MMP-7 and c-myc(P<0.05).Conclusions:1.The up-regulated expressions of MMP-7 and c-myc were related to the onset development of oral squamous cell carcinoma.2.MMP-7 and c-myc may play importmant roles in the infiltration and metastasis of oral squamous cell carcinoma and can be used as a marker in assessing the malignant degree and prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma.3.MMP-7 and c-myc may play congenerous roles during the onset and development of oral squamous cell carcinoma by inhibiting cell apoptosis.