›› 2010, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (10): 1231-.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8115.2010.10.011

• Original article (Clinical research) • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Expression of osteopontin in oral mucosal epithelium in patients with oral leukoplakia

SUN Wei1, WEI Ben-juan1, LU Qun1, ZHOU Zeng-tong2   

  1. 1.Department o Stomatology, Renji Hospital|Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200001, China；2.Department of Oral Mucosa, The Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200011, China
  • Online:2010-10-25 Published:2010-10-27
  • Supported by:

    Foundation for the Excellent Youth Scholars of Higher Education of Shanghai, China, JDY08036

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Abstract:

Objective To explore the expression of osteopontin (OPN) in oral mucosal epithelium of oral local lesion in patients with oral leukoplakia (OLK). Methods Twenty patients with pathologically-confirmed OLK were selected (OLK group), including 9, 8, and 3 patients of mild, modern, and sever epithelium dysplasia, respectively. Mucosal epithelium tissues of OLK local lesion were collected and examined for the expression of OPN by immunohistochemical method. Twenty non-OLK patients were served as normal controls, who received oral mucosal operation because of accident injury or cosmetic surgery. Results In oral mucosal tissues of control group, there was no or very little OPN positive expression observed in epithelial cytoplasm by immunohistochemical staining. In OLK patients with sever epithelium dysplasia, the numbers of OPN positive cells increased obviously and the positive cells spread the whole epithelial cell stratum. The positive expression rates of OPN were 77.8%, 100% and 100% in OLK patients with mild, modern, and severe epithelium dysplasia by semi-quantitative analysis, respectively. There was no significant difference of positive expression rates among the three different dysplasia (P>0.05). But all of them were significantly higher than that in control group (11.1%) (P<0.05). Conclusion The expression of OPN significantly increased in mucosal epithelium of oral local lesion in patients with OLK, which indicates that OPN may be associated with the pathogenesis and carcinogenesis of OLK.

Key words: oral leukoplakia, osteopontin, immunohistochemistry