The Expression And Significance Of Osteopontin And Its Receptor Cd44v6 In Oral Squamous Carcinmoa

In this study, the osetopontin and its receptor CD44v6 were detected by realtime fluorescent quantitation PCR and immunohistochemistry in oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC) and nomal oral mucosa(NOM). The relationship between their expression level and the clinicopathological data were also approached. OPN expression in both mRNA and protein levels were much higher in OSCC than in normal oral mucosa, which indicated that OPN plays an important role in the oncogenesis and development of OSCC. Significant deviation of OPN expression grade was found between different clinical stages, as well as between the groups with or without cervical lymph node metastasis, and thus, OPN can help to predict clinical prognosis. The expression of CD44v6 showed no correlation with that of OPN, nor any difference between OSCC and NOM. We proposed that the function of OPN in tumor metastasis does not rely on the expression of CD44v6.