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. 2023 Mar 28;11(4):1040.
doi: 10.3390/biomedicines11041040.

Clinicopathological Significance of Cancer Stem Cell Markers (OCT-3/4 and SOX-2) in Oral Submucous Fibrosis and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Divyambika Catakapatri Venugopal  1 , Cynthia Leslie Caleb  1 , Nandhini Priyadarshini Kirupakaran  1 , Vidyarani Shyamsundar  2 , Soundharya Ravindran  3 , Madhavan Yasasve  1 , Arvind Krishnamurthy  4 , Thamizhchelvan Harikrishnan  5 , Sathasivasubramanian Sankarapandian  1 , Vijayalakshmi Ramshankar  3
Affiliations

Clinicopathological Significance of Cancer Stem Cell Markers (OCT-3/4 and SOX-2) in Oral Submucous Fibrosis and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Divyambika Catakapatri Venugopal et al. Biomedicines. .

Abstract

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is highly prevalent in South East Asia with higher rates of malignant transformation in Indian subcontinent. Numerous biomarkers are now being studied to predict disease prognosis and detect malignant alterations at an early stage. Patients with clinically and biopsy-proven oral submucous fibrosis and oral squamous cell carcinoma were included in the study as the experimental group, while patients without a tobacco or betel nut habit who had their third molars surgically removed were included as the healthy control group. For the immunohistochemistry (IHC) investigation, 5-μm slices from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks (FFPE) were obtained. Fresh tissues (n = 45) from all three groups were collected and gene expression was studied using relative quantitation-based qPCR. The protein expression of octamer-binding transcription factor 3/4 (OCT 3/4) and sex-determining region Y-box 2 (SOX 2) was evaluated in the experimental group and compared with healthy controls. The IHC results showed a significant correlation with the expression of OCT 3/4 (p value = 0.000; χ2 = 20.244) and SOX 2 (p value = 0.006; χ2 = 10.101) among OSCC and OSMF patients in comparison to healthy controls. Both OCT 3/4 and SOX 2 showed overexpression of four-fold and three-fold in OSMF when compared to OSCC and healthy controls, respectively. This study shows the significant importance of cancer stem cell markers OCT 3/4 and SOX 2 to assess the disease prognosis in OSMF.

Keywords: immunohistochemistry; malignant transformation; octamer-binding transcription factor 3/4 (OCT-3/4); oral submucous fibrosis; real-time PCR; sex-determining region Y-box 2 (SOX-2).

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) IHC for OCT 3/4 in healthy control hyperplastic oral epithelium, showing negative stain, (b) IHC for OCT 3/4 in oral submucous fibrosis showing intense nuclear positivity, and (c) IHC for OCT 3/4 in MDSCC showing intense nuclear positivity (under 20× magnification).
Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) IHC for OCT 3/4 in healthy control hyperplastic oral epithelium, showing negative stain, (b) IHC for OCT 3/4 in oral submucous fibrosis showing intense nuclear positivity, and (c) IHC for OCT 3/4 in MDSCC showing intense nuclear positivity (under 20× magnification).
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) IHC for SOX 2 in healthy control hyperplastic oral epithelium, showing negative stain, (b) IHC for SOX 2 in oral submucous fibrosis showing intense nuclear positivity, and (c) IHC for SOX 2 in MDSCC showing intense nuclear positivity (under 20× magnification).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Differential expression of OCT 3/4 in different tissue samples.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Differential expression of SOX 2 in different tissue samples.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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