Parcharidis Evangelos, Andreadis Dimitrios, Lazaridou Elizabeth, Poulopoulos Athanasios
Department of Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, GRC.
Second Department of Dermatology-Venereology, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, GRC.
Cureus. 2025 Mar 17;17(3):e80696. doi: 10.7759/cureus.80696. eCollection 2025 Mar.
Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a common skin disease of indeterminate etiology that can affect the oral mucosa. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical biological event that plays an essential role in several functions, such as development, tissue repair, and stem cell dynamics, but also in cancer progression. Claudin-10, an EMT-related protein, is encoded by the CLDN10 gene in humans. In the present work, we studied the immunohistological expression of Claudin-10 in OLP compared to normal oral mucosa.
Fifty-one formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples diagnosed as OLP from patients who did not receive any medications for the treatment of OLP until the initial biopsy and ten formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples diagnosed as comprising histologically normal oral mucosa tissue from resection margins of fibromas were immunohistochemically stained and analyzed for Claudin-10.
The expression of Claudin-10 was evaluated as significantly enhanced in OLP epithelium compared to controls (<0.001). In the superficial epithelial layer, the staining was markedly higher in OLP than in the controls (=0.008), and in the stroma, the staining was significantly stronger in OLP (=0.027). In the intermediate epithelial layer, the staining was significantly weaker in OLP than in the controls (=0.001), and in the basal layer, the staining was markedly reduced in OLP (<0.001).
The immunohistological expression of Claudin-10 has been described and analyzed in oral mucosal disease for the first time. Our findings indicate that the expression of Claudin-10 is dysregulated in OLP, possibly showing an interaction between the epithelium and the underlying tissue.
口腔扁平苔藓（OLP）是一种病因不明的常见皮肤病，可累及口腔黏膜。上皮-间质转化（EMT）是一个关键的生物学过程，在发育、组织修复和干细胞动态等多种功能中发挥重要作用，在癌症进展中也起着关键作用。Claudin-10是一种与EMT相关的蛋白质，由人类的CLDN10基因编码。在本研究中，我们研究了Claudin-10在OLP与正常口腔黏膜中的免疫组织化学表达。
收集51例未经任何药物治疗直至初次活检的OLP患者的福尔马林固定石蜡包埋样本，以及10例来自纤维瘤切除边缘、经组织学诊断为正常口腔黏膜组织的福尔马林固定石蜡包埋样本，进行Claudin-10免疫组化染色及分析。
与对照组相比，OLP上皮中Claudin-10的表达显著增强（<0.001）。在浅表上皮层，OLP中的染色明显高于对照组（=0.008）；在基质中，OLP中的染色显著更强（=0.027）。在中间上皮层，OLP中的染色明显弱于对照组（=0.001）；在基底层，OLP中的染色显著减少（<0.001）。
首次在口腔黏膜疾病中描述并分析了Claudin-10的免疫组织化学表达。我们的研究结果表明，Claudin-10在OLP中的表达失调，可能显示上皮与下层组织之间存在相互作用。
