Expression of p63 in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Precancerous Lesions

Objective: To investigate the expression and significance of p63, a new member of p53 family, in oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC) and precancerous lesions tissues. Method: Immunohistochemical staining(SP method) was used to examine the expression of p63 in the biopsy mucosa tissues from 48 cases of OSCC, 21 cases of simple hyperplasia, 15 cases of dysplasia and 10 cases of normal mucosa. Result: The positive rate of p63 was 100% both in normal mucosa and simple hyperplasia, while it was 93.3% and 85.4% in dysplasia tissue and OSCC, respectively, which was significantly lower than that in normal tissue and simple hyperplasia tissue(P0.05). Conclusion: The expression of p63 is closely related with the dysplasia of oral epithelium, which indicates that the changes of p63 may be one of the important biological markers inpredicting oncogenesis of oral mucosa.