The Expression Of Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 3 In Odontogenic Tumor

ObjectiveThe fibroblast growth factors (FGFs), a family of polypeptides with similar structures, exert their effects through bonding to fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs), which are transmembrane and high affinity receptors. FGFR3, a member of polypeptide growth factor family, is a tyrosine kinase receptor. FGFS/FGFRS play an important role in wound healing, angiogenesis and tissue repair. Recently it has been proved that overexpression of FGFR3 is associated with carcinogenesis. In 2002 Wakulich et al investigated FGFR3 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma and found that FGFR3 occurred in squamous cells and significant increased in well-differentiated squamous cells. Some biology characteristic of malignant tumor, such as osteolytic and invasive growth and high recurrence, are found in clinical situation of benign tumor odontogenic ameloblastoma and keratocyst, which attracts widespread attention of oral and maxillofacial surgery and pathology researchers.Presently the relation between FGFR3 and odontogenic tumor has not been showed yet. This study detected and analyzed FGFR3 expression in odontogenic ameloblastoma, keratocyst and primodial cysts by immunohistochemistry and discussed the significance of FGFR3 in cell proliferation and biologic behavior of odontogenic tumor.Materials and Methods84 odontogenic tumor cases included 29 ameloblastomas (male 14,female 15); 20 keratocysts (male 7,female 13) and 36 primodial cysts (male 19,female 17), which were collected from Department of Pathology, Hospital of Stomatology, Zhejiang University in 1999-2003. All samples were detected FGFR3 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) with rabbit anti-human FGFR 3 polyclonal antibody and PCNA antibody by immunohistochemistry. We observed the relativity among expression of FGFR3 and PCNA and cell proliferation activity and biological characteristic of odontogenic tumor.ResultFGFR3 was most intensely expression in ameloblastomas of 59 per cent and keratocysts of 45 per cent, but moderate expression in primodial cysts of 8 per cent. Labelling for FGFR3 and PCNA were yellow or brown stain but they located in cytoplasm and cellular nuclear respectively. PCNA was expressed with high intensity and ratio in those FGFR3 positivesamples. Equally, its expression was slight or negative in FGFR3 negative cases. PCNA occurred in actively proliferating cells while FGFR3 presented in well-differentiated cells.ConclusionExpression of FGFR3 may be related to cell proliferation activity and biological characteristic in ameloblastoma and odontogenic keratocyst and FGFR3 is probably associated with mechanism of cell terminal differentiation in odontogenic tumor.