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Pattern of galectins expression in actinic cheilitis with different risks of malignant transformation
Author(s) -
Lopes Maria Luiza Diniz de Sousa,
aka Cassiano Francisco Weege,
Queiroz Lélia Maria Guedes,
Souza Lélia Batista,
Miguel Márcia Cristina da Costa,
Silveira Éricka Janine Dantas
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of oral pathology and medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.887
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1600-0714
pISSN - 0904-2512
DOI - 10.1111/jop.12410
Subject(s) - galectin , grading (engineering) , galectin 3 , cytoplasm , medicine , malignant transformation , pathogenesis , pathology , immunohistochemistry , histopathology , neoplastic transformation , cancer , biology , immunology , carcinogenesis , ecology , biochemistry
Background Actinic cheilitis ( AC ) is a chronic inflammatory lesion that in some situations can turn into squamous cell carcinoma of the lip. The molecular mechanisms involved in this process are not yet completely understood. This study aimed to investigate the expression pattern of galectins in actinic cheilitis according to the histopathological grading. Methods Immunoexpression of galectin‐1, galectin‐3, galectin‐7, and galectin‐9 was semiquantitatively analyzed in 65 cases of actinic cheilitis graded as low risk ( n = 40) or high risk ( n = 25) of malignant transformation. Association between the location of the galectins in the cellular compartments and histopathological grading was analyzed. Results Galectin‐1 was mainly observed in the cell cytoplasm, and was elevated (score 3) in 60% of cases, regardless of the histopathological grade ( P > 0.05). Galectin‐3 expression was higher in high‐risk group than in the low‐risk group ( P < 0.05), with a predominant expression in the cytoplasm and nucleus of low‐risk (67.5%), and only in the cytoplasm of high‐risk cases (60%) ( P < 0.05). Galectin‐7 expression did not show significant differences between low‐risk and high‐risk groups ( P > 0.05). With respect to galectin‐9, 89.2% of cases were positive, showing decrease in median of scores as there was an increase in histological grade ( P < 0.001), with predominant expression in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Conclusions This study is the first indication of galectins involvement in the pathogenesis and morphologic progression of actinic cheilitis, particularly galectin‐3 and galectin‐9.