Morphological assessment of collagen IV expression in oral cancer and oral potentially malignant disorders: a pilot study
Tom 124 / 2021
Streszczenie
Background. Despite advances in oral cancer treatment, the mortality rate is still high, which is mainly attributed to late diagnosis. Oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) are a group of conditions associated with a higher risk of malignant transformation. The classification of these lesions is problematic leading to difficulties in predicting malignant transformation. Identifying changes at the clinical, microscopic, protein and gene levels is important to understand disease progression. The aim of this study was to assess changes in the morphology of collagen type IV expression, an important component of the basement membrane in blood vessels, in the sub-epithelial connective tissue of normal, potentially malignant and malignant oral lesions.
Methods. Histological sections from normal, low- and high-grade dysplasia and squamous cell carcinoma from the floor of the mouth were stained for Collagen type IV. Automated image analysis was performed on the sub-epithelial connective tissue component of these tissues to assess “particles” stained positively for collagen type IV. Morphometric features were assessed using various descriptors of size and shape. The spatial distribution of Collagen IV positive “particles” was assessed using fractal geometry.
Results. Our data showed significant changes in the spatial distribution, size and shape of collagen type IV positive “particles” between normal, dysplastic and neoplastic tissues. Size wise, an interesting pattern was observed, where the particle size was significantly smaller in low- and high-grade dysplasia compared to normal oral tissues. However, there was a significant increase in the size for these particles in cancer cases. There was a tendency of particles to change in shape in dysplastic and neoplastic tissues in comparison to normal tissues.
Conclusion. Here we report significant changes in the spatial distribution and morphometry of collagen type IV expression in normal, potentially malignant and malignant oral lesions. Our data suggest the potential use of collagen IV as a marker for predicting disease progression in oral lesions.
