Vairaktaris Eleftherios, Ragos Vassilis, Yapijakis Christos, Derka Spyridoula, Vassiliou Stavros, Nkenke Emeka, Yannopoulos Athanassios, Spyridonidou Sofia, Vylliotis Antonis, Papakosta Veronica, Loukeri Sofia, Lazaris Andreas, Tesseromatis Christina, Tsigris Christos, Patsouris Efstratios
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Athens Medical School, Vas. Sofias 93 and Dim. Soutsou 1, Athens 11521, Greece.
Anticancer Res. 2006 Nov-Dec;26(6B):4217-21.
FGFR-2 and FGFR-3 (fibroblast growth factor receptors) have been shown to play an important role in several processes including carcinogenesis. This study was designed to determine gradual FGFR-2 and FGFR-3 expression in sequential stages of oral carcinogenesis in an experimental animal system of Syrian golden hamsters.
Tissue sections ranging from normal mucosa to squamous cell carcinoma were studied using monoclonal antibodies against FGFR-2 and FGFR-3 proteins.
A significant elevation was revealed in both FGFR-2 and FGFR-3 expression during the stages of dysplasia and early invasion, while in the later stages of oral carcinogenesis the expression of both FGFR-2 and FGFR-3 decreased although not significantly.
Our findings indicate that FGFR-2 and FGFR-3 seem to play an important role in the initial stages of oral cancer progression.
