BACKGROUND It has been hypothesised that vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms may influence both the risk of cancer occurrence and prognosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS The distribution of VDR Taq I polymorphism in 64 patients with OSCC was determined by polymerase chain reaction based restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and compared with that of 87 healthy controls. RESULTS T...

UNLABELLED Mast cell contribution to neoangiogenesis during tumorigenesis in oral squamous cell carcinoma is not determined yet. OBJECTIVES To associate numerical mast cell density (MCD) to numerical microvessel density (MVD) during the progression of oral leukoplakia without dysplasia and leukoplakia with dysplasia to squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS MVD was analysed i...

Id1 and NF-κB are highly expressed in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Whether they have a synergistic role in the carcinogenesis of OSCC is unclear. The current study was designed to demonstrate the synergy of both Id1 and NF-κB in the underlying disease mechanisms of OSCC using in vitro and in vivo animal models. Id1 and NF-κB strengthened the expression of both CD133 and BMI-1 in OSCC ce...

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors. Its incidence is rated as one among the highest in the world and the use of tobacco in various forms is increasingly associated with the cause of OSCC. Levels of serum copper and iron was estimated and compared among subjects with tobacco habits and healthy controls. OSCC patients were categorized according the toba...

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), an aggressive cancer originating in the oral cavity, is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in males worldwide. This study investigated the antitumor activity and mechanisms of piperlongumine (PL), a natural compound isolated from Piper longum L., in human OSCC cells. The effects of PL on cell proliferation, the cell cycle, apoptosis, senescence and r...

Dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been associated with carcinogenesis in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). In the present study, we investigated the expression and function of miR-99b-3p in human OSCC. We found that the expression levels of miR-99b-3p decreased in 21 clinical OSCC samples (84%). Furthermore, ectopic expression of miR-99b-3p inhibited OSCC cell proliferation by downregu...

Notch signaling has been reported to be involved in several types of malignant tumors. However, the role and activation mechanisms of Notch signaling in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remain poorly characterized. The present review focuses on the dual role of Notch signaling in OSCC. A number of expression and functional analyses demonstrated that Notch1 plays a crucial role in development...

Zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 2 (ZEB2) has been reported to mediate epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and disease progression in several cancer types. However, the expression of ZEB2 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and its association with prognosis remains unclear. In the present study, a tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry were used to investigate ZEB2 and epith...

AIM Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, are considered important in the regulation of target genes in cancer development. 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) was recently discovered to be related to the process of malignant transformation. The influence of DNA methylation in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) is not fully-understood. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to in...

Several recent studies have investigated DNA instability in malignancies including deletions and duplications of part of the chromosome using array-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) analysis. Using the same approach on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tissue samples, we found a frequent deletion at chromosome 3q26.1 in OSCC patients...