Paparella María Luisa, Brandizzi Daniel, Santini-Araujo Eduardo, Cabrini Rómulo Luis
Department of Oral Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Acta Odontol Latinoam. 2007;20(1):55-60.
Maxillary osteosarcomas are a relatively frequent malignant tumor of the oral cavity. Similarly to other skeletal osteosarcomas, they exhibit different cellular differentiation patterns, i.e. chondroblastic, osteoblastic, or fibroblastic. Although their histological features resemble those of osteosarcomas of the long bones, their pattern of evolution usually differs. Morphometric variations in silver stained Nucleolar Organizer Regions (AgNOR) have proved of value to study the biology of several tumors. However, information on the analysis of AgNOR in maxillary tumors is scarce. The aim of the present study was to analyze the variations of different morphological parameters related to AgNOR in a series of 32 cases of maxillary osteosarcoma. In each case we analyzed 100 nuclei corresponding to the prevalent cellular differentiation type, selecting the most aggressive area. We employed software previously developed at our laboratory that yields information on different AgNOR-related parameters. The results were compared with those previously reported in a study on 12 cases of osteosarcoma of long bones. Six cases of oral mucosa squamous cell carcinoma were also included for comparative purposes. Single AgNOR volume proved to be the most discriminatory and informative parameter. The value of single AgNOR volume was considerably lower in mandible osteosarcomas than in osteosarcomas of the upper maxilla (p=0.02). The values were significantly lower in maxillary osteosarcomas than in long bone osteosarcomas and in oral carcinomas. This finding would suggest a slower rate of cell activity in maxillary osteosarcomas, associated in turn to its known lower degree of aggressiveness. The present results suggest that the analysis of AgNOR is a valuable and easily applicable marker to determine the degree of malignancy and biology of maxillary osteosarcomas.
上颌骨肉瘤是口腔中相对常见的恶性肿瘤。与其他骨骼骨肉瘤相似，它们表现出不同的细胞分化模式，即软骨母细胞型、成骨细胞型或纤维母细胞型。尽管它们的组织学特征与长骨骨肉瘤相似，但其演变模式通常不同。银染核仁组织区（AgNOR）的形态计量学变化已被证明对研究几种肿瘤的生物学特性有价值。然而，关于上颌肿瘤中AgNOR分析的信息却很少。本研究的目的是分析32例上颌骨肉瘤中与AgNOR相关的不同形态学参数的变化。在每个病例中，我们分析了100个对应于主要细胞分化类型的细胞核，选择了最具侵袭性的区域。我们使用了我们实验室之前开发的软件，该软件可提供有关不同AgNOR相关参数的信息。将结果与之前一项关于12例长骨骨肉瘤的研究中报告的结果进行比较。还纳入了6例口腔黏膜鳞状细胞癌用于比较。单个AgNOR体积被证明是最具鉴别力和信息量的参数。下颌骨肉瘤中单个AgNOR体积的值明显低于上颌骨肉瘤（p = 0.02）。上颌骨肉瘤中的值明显低于长骨骨肉瘤和口腔癌。这一发现表明上颌骨肉瘤的细胞活性速率较慢，这反过来与其已知的较低侵袭程度相关。目前的结果表明，AgNOR分析是一种有价值且易于应用的标志物，可用于确定上颌骨肉瘤的恶性程度和生物学特性。
