الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are thought to be a critical subpopulation in tumor development, progression, metastasis and recurrence. The identification of these cells is an initial step in understanding their role in oncogenesis and in seeking valuable markers for diagnosis or development of targeted therapeutics. This study aimed to evaluate the immunohistochemically the expression of cancer stem cell marker (Bmi-1) in different histopathological grades of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) and determine the clinical significance of Bmi-1 in the studied OSCC cases. Method ; immunohistochemical staining for Bmi-1 was performed in 40 archived histopathology specimens; the scoring of Bmi-1 staining was carried out on two parameters: 1) staining intensity and 2) percent of tissue involved. Results: expression of Bmi-1 was highly variable amongst different cases; the fourteen cases staining of tumor cells were located between score (2+, 3+). Statistically analysis revealed significant difference between clinical stages in relation to Bmi-1 expression as well as between tumor size in relation to Bmi-1 expression, and the histopathological grades in relation to Bmi-1 expression, the expression of Bmi-1 was directly proportional to the degree of differentiation of the studied OSCC cases in addition cytoplasmic expression pattern of Bmi-1 in the studied OSCC cases was more likely to have a worse prognosis. from these finding, we can conclude that Bmi-1 might play a role in OSCC progression and could be considered as a prognostic indicator in oral squamous cell carcinoma. |