Comparing Immunohistochemical Expression of Podoplanin between Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Normal Oral Mucosa

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the sixth most common cancer in the world. Podoplanin is a mucin-like integral membrane glycoprotein that is expressed in the lymphatic endothelial cells but not in the blood vascular endothelial cells. The aim of the present study was to investigate the immunohistochemical expression of podoplanin and evaluating lymphangiogenesis in OSCC compared with normal oral mucosa.

In this laboratory study, 40 paraffin blocks archived in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology in Babol Dental School with previous diagnosis of OSCC were used. Also, 40 samples of normal oral mucosa obtained during impacted wisdom tooth surgery with minimal inflammation from histological and histopathological point of view were included. Immunohistochemical expression of podoplanin in epithelial cells and the number of lymphatic vessels were evaluated in both groups. Chi-square, Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon, and Oneway ANOVA were applied for data analysis.

Findings showed significant difference in the mean number of lymph vessels between the area of tumor invasion in OSCC group (4.43±2.02) and center of the tumor (6.78±2.72) (P<0.001). In the study of podoplanin expression in terms of quality, it was found that in the OSCC group, podoplanin expression was between 51% and 100% in 23 cases (57.5%), while these expression levels in the control group were seen only in four cases (10%). Podoplanin expression in epithelial cells in squamous cell carcinoma was significantly higher than normal oral mucosa (P<0.001).

The present study suggests that podoplanin is involved in the pathogenesis of oral squamous cell carcinoma.