Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy.
Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2011 Apr-Jun;24(2 Suppl):129-32. doi: 10.1177/03946320110240S222.
Sexual hormones play an important role in expression of genes involved in a wide variety of biological and neoplastic processes. The information on Estrogen Receptors (ER) expression in non-target tissues is very few and, in particular, the studies in head and neck tumors are still controversial. Recent studies analyzed the role of Tamoxifen (TAM) on Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) lines in relation to the presence/absence of ER. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the expression of sexual hormones receptors mRNAs, in particular Estrogen Receptor alpha (ERα) and Androgen Receptor (AR) mRNA in OSCC tissues. The study group comprised 20 samples of OSCC, harvested from 20 otherwise healthy subjects (14 males and 6 females, mean age 58.2y, range 38-74). The control group was formed by 20 samples of normal mucosa harvested around the margins of the specimens (at least 1 cm from the lesion margins). Estrogens Receptor alpha (Era) and Androgen Receptor (AR) mRNA expressions were analyzed by RT-PCR carried out on total RNAs extracted from both cancerous and healthy tissues. Obtained data were evaluated by Shapiro-Walk normality test and compared by Student's t test. Results with p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. AR transcripts were less expressed in OSCC specimens than in healthy tissues, while levels of ERα transcripts significantly increased in tumor samples. These preliminary data show different expression patterns of AR and ERα mRNAs in malignant tissues of oral mucosa and could suggest an involvement of these sexual hormones in oral cancer.
性激素在涉及广泛的生物学和肿瘤发生过程的基因表达中发挥重要作用。关于非靶组织中雌激素受体（ER）表达的信息非常有限，特别是在头颈部肿瘤中的研究仍存在争议。最近的研究分析了他莫昔芬（TAM）对口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）系与 ER 存在/缺失的关系中的作用。本研究旨在评估 OSCC 组织中性激素受体 mRNAs 的表达，特别是雌激素受体α（ERα）和雄激素受体（AR）mRNA 的表达。研究组包括 20 例从 20 例健康受试者（14 名男性和 6 名女性，平均年龄 58.2 岁，范围 38-74 岁）中采集的 OSCC 样本。对照组由 20 例取自标本边缘周围的正常黏膜样本组成（距病变边缘至少 1cm）。通过从癌组织和正常组织中提取的总 RNA 进行 RT-PCR 分析，检测雌激素受体α（Era）和雄激素受体（AR）mRNA 的表达。通过 Shapiro-Wilk 正态性检验评估获得的数据，并通过 Student's t 检验进行比较。p<0.05 的结果被认为具有统计学意义。AR 转录本在 OSCC 标本中的表达低于正常组织，而 ERα 转录本在肿瘤样本中的水平显著增加。这些初步数据显示了口腔黏膜恶性组织中 AR 和 ERα mRNAs 的不同表达模式，可能提示这些性激素参与了口腔癌的发生。
