Costa Renato Felipe, Carvalho Bárbara Andrade de, Lima Bruna Mendes, Veloso Emerson Soares, Nakagaki Karen Yumi Ribeiro, Gonçalves Ivy Nayra Nascimento, Del Puerto Helen Lima, Ferreira Enio
Department of General Pathology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil.
Vet Sci. 2025 Sep 2;12(9):851. doi: 10.3390/vetsci12090851.
The aggressiveness of oral melanoma can be related to several mutations that occur during development. Based on the knowledge of the role of transcription factors of the SOX family in other neoplastic types, it is necessary to understand their behavior in oral melanomas. In this work, the expression of SOX2, SOX3, and SOX10 and its relationship with the proliferative index and histological aspects indicative of aggressiveness in canine oral melanomas were evaluated. Thirty tumors were histologically reviewed and the expression of Melan-A, SOX2, SOX3, SOX10, and Ki67 in these tumors were determined. All tumors presented histomorphological characteristics compatible with malignant tumors and immunopositivity for Melan-A. The expression of SOX2, SOX3, and SOX10 was observed in 7/30 (23.3%), 6/30 (20%), and 23/30 (76.6%) of the cases, respectively. Among the analyzed markers, the relationship between the loss of SOX3 expression in tumors with higher proliferative rates was highlighted. An inverse correlation was also observed between the expression cytoplasmic SOX10 and nuclear SOX10, suggesting a change in the location of this protein in oral melanomas. Among the SOX family proteins studied, the SOX3 protein plays a role in the regulation of cell proliferation in oral melanomas, and it is suggested that the SOX2 and SOX10 proteins are constitutively expressed in these neoplasms, without a determining role for aggressiveness. New studies of this gene transcription pathway may assist in possible prognostic and predictive determinations of the SOX3 protein in oral canine melanoma.
口腔黑色素瘤的侵袭性可能与发育过程中发生的几种突变有关。基于对SOX家族转录因子在其他肿瘤类型中作用的了解，有必要了解它们在口腔黑色素瘤中的行为。在这项研究中，评估了SOX2、SOX3和SOX10的表达及其与犬口腔黑色素瘤增殖指数和侵袭性组织学特征的关系。对30个肿瘤进行了组织学检查，并测定了这些肿瘤中Melan-A、SOX2、SOX3、SOX10和Ki67的表达。所有肿瘤均呈现出与恶性肿瘤相符的组织形态学特征以及Melan-A免疫阳性。分别在7/30（23.3%）、6/30（20%）和23/30（76.6%）的病例中观察到SOX2、SOX3和SOX10的表达。在分析的标志物中，突出显示了增殖率较高的肿瘤中SOX3表达缺失之间的关系。还观察到细胞质SOX10和细胞核SOX10的表达呈负相关，提示该蛋白在口腔黑色素瘤中的位置发生了变化。在所研究的SOX家族蛋白中，SOX3蛋白在口腔黑色素瘤细胞增殖调节中发挥作用，并且提示SOX2和SOX10蛋白在这些肿瘤中组成性表达，对侵袭性无决定性作用。对该基因转录途径的新研究可能有助于对犬口腔黑色素瘤中SOX3蛋白进行可能的预后和预测判定。
