From Adhesion to Invasion: Role of E-cadherin and Vimentin in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Progression

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a leading cause of cancer mortality and morbidity in India. It is an aggressive malignancy with potential for local invasiveness and metastasis. This study was conducted to study the expression of E-cadherin and vimentin in different histological grades of OSCC and to correlate their expression patterns with lymph node metastasis.28 biopsy cases diagnosed as primary OSCC over 3 years were obtained from department's histopathology archives. Immunohistochemical staining for vimentin and E-cadherin was done, and their expression was compared in different histological grades of OSCC and correlated with lymph node metastases. As control, six benign lesions of oral mucosa were used. Independent t-test and Chi-square test were used to correlate expression of E- cadherin and vimentin in different histological grades of OSCC as well as with nodal status positivity. p value < 0.05 was considered significant.Benign lesions did not express vimentin, but they exhibited strong positivity for E-cadherin. Vimentin expression increased with increasing OSCC grades, but the difference was not significant statistically. However, E-cadherin expression dramatically declined with increasing grades of OSCC (p value 0.005). There was a significant difference in expression of Vimentin and E-cadherin in OSCC cases with and without nodal metastasis.Regional metastasis and poor histological differentiation in OSCC might be related to downregulation of E-cadherin expression, along with aberrant vimentin expression. Thus, vimentin and E-cadherin can be helpful prognostic indicators in oral squamous cell carcinoma.