[Expression and clinical significance of chemokine receptor 4 in oral squamous cell carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To study the expression of chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) protein and mRNA in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and to evaluate the relationship between the expression of CXCR4 protein and the clinicopathology factors, and lymph node metastasis of OSCC. METHODS: The expression of CXCR4 protein in 64 cases of OSCC was examined by immunohistochemical technique (SABC), and the expression CXCR4 mRNA in 40 cases of OSCC studied by in situ hybridization, and its relation to cliniopathological parameter was also analyzed. RESULTS: CXCR4 mRNA and CXCR4 were positively expressed in OSCC, and the positive expression rate of CXCR4 protein was 62.5% (40/64). CXCR4 expression was significantly higher in the patients with lymph node metastasis than those without lymph node metastasis (P = 0.0144), and was also correlated with tumor histological type (P = 0.0042), depth of invasion (P = 0.0023)and TNM stage (P = 0.0012), but not with age at surgery, gender and tumor size. CONCLUSION: CXCR4 is highly expressed in OSCC, and its expression is associated with the diverse progression of OSCC, including invasion and lymph node metastasis.