| Purpose:Oral cancer is a common malignant tumor, and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common type among oral cancer. To treat oral squamous cell carcinoma, a sequential therapy program is commonly advised,including the combination of surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and biological therapies and other treatments. However, the long-term effects of the sequential therapy program are still not satisfied. Cancer recurrence and metastasis are still the main reasons for failures in treating oral squamous cell carcinoma.In recent years, with accumulated knowledge about cancer and stem cells,the therapy of cancer stem cells(CSC) was proposed, which reveals that some cancer cells and stem cells have similar biological characteristics. Cancer stem cells is a kind of tumor cell population similar to stem cells in biological characteristics, able to differentiate into different cell phenotypes, self-renew and differentiate continously. Proposal of the theory of tumor stem cell provides new clues for research and treatment on tumor, and the problem of tumor recurrence and metastasis is expected to be solven. The key point of research on tumor stem cell is to choose a cell surface marker,which can confirm the existence of cancer stem cells and be applied to extract and identify cancer stem cells.p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) is one of cell surface receptor glycoproteins, with molecular weight of 75kDa. p75NTR is a member of tumor necrosis factor receptor family, have multiple biological functions, extending from promoting cell survival to promoting apoptosis. p75NTR is confirmed to be used as a marker of cancer stem cells as it is relevant with a variety of tumors. In this paper, we investigated the expression of p75 neurotrophin receptor in tongue squamous cell carcinoma cell line Tca8113 and oral squamous cell carcinoma, to evaluate the possibility of p75NTR as a prognosis indicator of oral squamous cell carcinoma as well as a cancer stem cell marker.Methods:Expression of p75NTR was detected by immunocytochemistry experiments in Tca8113 tongue squamous cell carcinoma cell line.SP immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expressions of tongue squamous cell carcinoma line Tca8113 and 43 surgically resected squamous cell carcinoma.5 peri-carcinoma tissues and 8 normal tissues were also selected as controls.The data was analysised using the line xcolumn test via SPSS 16.0 software.Results:p75NTR was positive in tongue squamous cell carcinoma cell lines and located in cell membrane.33 cases of the 43 OSCC patients showed positive expression of p75NTR. Peri-carcinoma tissues and normal tissues showed no expression of p75NTR. p75NTR was located in the cell membrane and dispersed in the cancer nest, it also had a trend of cluster distribution, but the positive cells in the tumor tissue were not found of universal law in distribution. The expression of p75NTR was not related with gender, age and had pathological grading but related with tumor clinical stage(p<0.05) and lymph node metastasis(p<0.05).Conclusion:The expression of p75NTR can predict the prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma, and it will be taken as a marker of tumor stem cell in future. Further study should be taken to investigate the role and mechanism of p75NTR in the development of tumor. |
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