Korean J Otolaryngol-Head Neck Surg.  2003 Aug;46(8):686-691.

Expression of E-Cadherin and Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oral Tongue

• Rhee SJ
• Kim MS
• Sun DI
• Cho SH
• Lee KS

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the relationship of the clinicopathologic findings in squamous cell carcinomas of the oral tongue, we studied the expression pattern of E-cadherin, and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) by immunohistochemical stain. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Twenty-five patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the oral tongue were classified as their tumor stage, lymph node metastasis and histopathological grade and their paraffin-embedded surgical specimens were investigated by immunohistochemical analysis using monoclonal E-cadherin antibody and MMP-2 antibody. RESULTS: There was not any significant correlation between the expression of E-cadherin and the tumor stage (p>0.05), but it showed significantly reduced expression of E-cadherin in moderately or poorly differentiated carcinoma (p=0.034). The expression of MMP-2 increased significantly with respect to the metastasis of the cervical lymph node in early carcinoma (p=0.045) but it was not correlated with primary tumor size or histological differentiation (p>0.05). We cannot find any inverse relationship between E-cadherin and MMP-2 expression in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma. CONCLUSION: The expression of E-cadherin and MMP-2 may be related the disease processes of squamous cell carcinomas of the oral tongue and will provide the possibility of the its biochemical parameters.

Keyword

Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue; Cadherins; Matrix metalloproteinases

MeSH Terms

Neoplasm Metastasis