Expresión de Podoplanina en Mucosa Oral Normal, Displasia Epitelial Oral y Carcinoma Oral de Células Escamosas

The objective of this study was to evaluate the expression of Podoplanin (PDPN) in epithelium and lymphatic vessels in normal oral mucosa (NOM), oral epithelial displasia (OED) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). A descriptive case study was carried out. Nineteen histological samples diagnosed with NOM, 18 diagnosed with OED and 19 with OSCC. Immunopositive cells for PDPN were those that presented membrane and/or cytoplasmic staining. A semi-quantitative analysis of the stained sections was made according to the immunoreactive score (IRS) for the extension and intensity of epithelial cells, while the evaluation of lymphangiogenesis was made through the calculation of the mean vascular density (MVD). The results indicated the higher IRS value was in OSCC followed by OED and lowest in NOM, with significant differences between OSCC/OED (p= 0.0200) and OSCC/NOM (p= 0.0078). No differences in MVD were found between the studied samples (p= 0.4273). Finally, the correlation between the value of epithelial IRS and MVD was analyzed through Spearman Independence test, which determined there was no statistically significant relationship between the studied variables (p= 0.2056). In conclusion, epithelial IRS value is greater in OSCC samples than OED and NOM. There was no statistically significant difference in lymphatic MVD in the studied samples. There is no correlation between the epithelial PDPN expression and lymphatic MVD in OSCC and OED samples.