Gupta Akanksha, Devi Anju, Kamboj Mala, Narwal Anjali, Kumar Adarsh, Singh Sunita
Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Post Graduate Institute of Dental Sciences, Pt.BD. Sharma University, Rohtak, Haryana, 124001, India.
Department of Public Health Dentistry, Post Graduate Institute of Dental Sciences, Pt.BD. Sharma University, Rohtak, Haryana, 124001, India.
Head Neck Pathol. 2025 Apr 25;19(1):50. doi: 10.1007/s12105-025-01790-2.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the most prevalent of all the oral cancers. There is no definitive marker available for its early diagnosis and its effective prognosis. YAP serves as a transcriptional regulator in hippo tumor suppressor pathway thereby activating the transcription of genes taking part in cellular proliferation, alteration, migration, and invasion. On the contrary, PARK2 acts as a tumor suppressor and has been widely explored in various malignancies. However, its role in OSCC carcinogenesis is untrodden.
To evaluate the Immunohistochemical expression of YAP and PARK2 in oral epithelial dysplasia and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and establish them as prognostic markers.
The study sample consisted of 70 formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue sections of normal oral mucosa (10), oral epithelial dysplasia (30) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (30). Immunohistochemical analysis of YAP and PARK2 was done and final scores were calculated. Further, the markers were graded as low and high expression groups. Statistical analysis was done using chi-square test, cox regression analysis and Spearman's correlation. Kaplan Meier plot for survival analysis was also plotted.
Immunohistochemical expression of YAP depicted a gradual incline from normal oral mucosa to oral squamous cell carcinoma while PARK2 showed a reverse trend. Significant difference of YAP and PARK2 expression between three groups was noted. Inverse moderate degree of correlation was observed between both the markers in OSCC group.
Concomitant immunoexpression of YAP and PARK2 with a moderate degree of inverse correlation from normal oral mucosa to oral squamous cell carcinoma could probably serve as diagnostic and prognostic markers as they might act through a common mechanism, probably hippo/YAP signaling, which could be further confirmed by larger sample size, including longer follow up in future studies.
口腔鳞状细胞癌是所有口腔癌中最常见的。目前尚无用于其早期诊断和有效预后评估的确切标志物。YAP作为河马肿瘤抑制通路中的转录调节因子，可激活参与细胞增殖、改变、迁移和侵袭的基因转录。相反，PARK2作为一种肿瘤抑制因子，已在多种恶性肿瘤中得到广泛研究。然而，其在口腔鳞状细胞癌发生中的作用尚未得到充分探索。
评估YAP和PARK2在口腔上皮发育异常和口腔鳞状细胞癌中的免疫组化表达，并将它们确立为预后标志物。
研究样本包括70例福尔马林固定石蜡包埋的组织切片，分别来自正常口腔黏膜（10例）、口腔上皮发育异常（30例）和口腔鳞状细胞癌（30例）。对YAP和PARK2进行免疫组化分析并计算最终得分。此外，将标志物分为低表达组和高表达组。采用卡方检验、cox回归分析和Spearman相关性分析进行统计学分析。还绘制了生存分析的Kaplan Meier图。
YAP的免疫组化表达从正常口腔黏膜到口腔鳞状细胞癌呈逐渐上升趋势，而PARK2则呈现相反趋势。三组之间YAP和PARK2表达存在显著差异。在口腔鳞状细胞癌组中，两种标志物之间观察到中度负相关。
从正常口腔黏膜到口腔鳞状细胞癌，YAP和PARK2的伴随免疫表达呈中度负相关，可能作为诊断和预后标志物，因为它们可能通过共同机制发挥作用，可能是河马/YAP信号通路，这在未来研究中可通过更大样本量，包括更长时间的随访进一步证实。
