Assessment of Expression of Stromal Myofibroblasts in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients Using and#913; Sma Antibody An Immunohistochemical Study

Abstract

Oral cancer encompasses a variety of malignancies impacting any area of the oral cavity, pharyngeal regions as well as salivary glands. The tumor invasion frontier has been discovered to have increased collagen deposition and ECM density. Recent research has demonstrated that the presence of myofibroblasts in a neoplastic stroma is associated with a worse prognosis in some tumor types. The current research was carried out to determine the expression of stromal myofibroblast in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients using an alpha smooth muscle actin antibody. This study was conducted in department of Human anatomy, SGRDIMSAR, Amritsar in collaboration with Department of General Pathology, DIRDS, Faridkot. After obtaining approval by the institutional research and ethical committee, a total of 160 specimens were enrolled. The present study was conducted from October 2019- October 2022 on specimens of histologically diagnosed Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma obtained from the archives. The study group comprised of 160 specimens of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (40 histological sections of Well-differentiated OSCC, 40 histological sections of moderately differentiated OSCC and 40 histological sections of Poorly differentiated OSCC) and 40 healthy controls after approval from the Department of Pathology, Dasmesh Institute of Research andamp; Dental Sciences, Faridkot. Among different grades of OSCC, expression of myofibroblasts was compared. All the results were subjected to statistical analysis. The presence of myofibroblasts in the stroma of OSCC and their absence in normal oral mucosa reveals that these cells may play a role in cancer cell invasion and progression so the treatment strategies targeting the myofibroblasts and their by-products may be beneficial in OSCC patients. Malignant epithelium might induce the adjacent stromal tissue to produce myofibroblasts. Proliferation of myofibroblasts may be used as a stromal marker of malignancy.