Correlated analysis of semi-quantitative immunohistochemical features of E-cadherin, VEGF and CD105 in assessing malignant potentiality of oral submucous fibrosis.

[oral submucous fibrosis]

Oral submucous fibrosis , a potentially premalignant condition for oral squamous cell carcinoma , manifests both non-dysplastic and dysplastic grades . Early and specific identification of its malignant potentiality suffers from diagnostic limitations that may be addressed by correlated molecular pathology attributes having histopathological backdrop . Present study correlates expressional alteration in prime epithelial marker E -cadherin , with neo-angiogenic molecules viz . VEGF and CD 105 for elucidation of malignant potentiality in different stages of oral submucous fibrosis . Sixty -eight incision biopsies from normal oral mucosa (n =10 ), non-dysplastic (n =18 ) and different dysplastic grades (n =40 ) of oral submucous fibrosis were semi-quantitatively analyzed for immunohistochemical expressions of E -cadherin (membranous and cytoplasmic ), VEGF and CD 105 which were further statistically correlated . The loss of membranous E -cadherin with increase in cytoplasmic accumulation in differentiative layers of epithelium through the progression of dysplasia was noted along with up-regulation in VEGF expressions . The number of CD 105 (+) blood vessels and their major axis also showed significant increase from non-dysplasia toward higher grades of dysplasia . The positive correlation between deregulated expression of epithelial cell-cell adhesion molecule and increase in neo-angiogenic attributes of oral submucous fibrosis with increase in dysplastic grades indicated elucidatory potential of molecular expression features in assessment of malignant potentiality in oral submucous fibrosis .