Expression of Zinc Alpha-2 Glycoprotein in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Oral Dysplasia

Abstract

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most prevalent cancer of the oral cavity representing 90% among all the common oral malignancies. It is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and ranked second highest in Pakistan. The purpose of the study was to assess the expression of zinc alpha-2 glycoprotein in oral squamous cell carcinoma and oral dysplasia. The study aimed to evaluate the association of zinc α-2 glycoprotein (ZAG) expression with different clinico-pathological parameters of OSCC.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at Ziauddin University from January 2020-July 2020. The consecutive sampling technique was applied. In this study, 120 cases were of oral squamous cell carcinoma and 24 of oral dysplasia. The tissue samples of both cases were collected from the Histopathology Department of Ziauddin University. The zinc alpha-2 glycoprotein expression was explored through immunohistochemical analysis. The data was analyzed through SPSS and p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Results: ZAG positive stained OSCC cases in which 2 (1.6%) were of strong staining intensity, 10 (8.3%) moderate, and 14 (11.6%) mild, but the remaining 94 (78.3%) samples and entire oral dysplasia samples did not stain. The positive stained OSCC samples 23(46.9%) belonged to the early stages of OSCC with statistically significant results (p<0.001). All the positive stained samples were of moderately differentiated OSCC (p=0.008).

Conclusion: In this study, positive expression of zinc α-2 glycoprotein was found in the early stages (I and II) and showed a higher association with moderately differentiated tumors.

Keywords: Immunohistochemistry; Mouth Neoplasms; Precancerous Conditions; Zn-Alpha-2-Glycoprotein (ZAG).