Evaluation of Estrogen and Progesterone Receptor Expression in Pyogenic Granuloma and Pregnancy Tumor of Oral Mucosa by Immunohistochemistry

Pyogenic Granuloma is a tumorlike lesion of oral cavity that is considered to be non-neoplastic in nature and arises in response to local irritation. Most studies show that this lesion is more common in women than men, possibly because of the vascular effects of female hormones. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors in pyogenic granuloma in pregnant, non-pregnant women and men compared with normal mucosa by immunohistochemistry.

In this study, cross-sectional analytical 36 paraffin blocks of pyogenic granuloma samples (12 samples of pregnant women, 12 samples of non-pregnant women, 12 samples of men and 9 samples of normal mucosa) were obtained from O.M.F pathology department of Mashhad Dental School. 4 micron sections were prepared and stained by immunohistochemistry staining(Based on Dako factory instruction). After immunostaining, estrogen and progesterone receptors expression in three areas including epithelium, inflammatory and mesenchymal cells were evaluated. The data were analyzed by fisher's exact test.

After comparing the expression of estrogen receptors in epithelium(P=0.1), inflammatory cells(P=0.184), mesenchymal cells(P=0.316) in studied groups, no statistically differences were found. Expression of progesterone receptors was not seen in epithelium of any samples and it’s expression in inflammatory and mesenchymal cells was poor(P=0.19,P=0.547).

Although estrogen and progesterone receptor expression was observed in pyogenic granulomas of oral mucosa in pregnant, non pregnant women, men and normal mucosa, it did not seem to play an important role in pathogenesis of this lesion or these hormones may have put on effect by other mechanisms other than binding to specific receptors.