Diabetes increases both N-ras and ets-1 expression during rat oral oncogenesis resulting in enhanced cell proliferation and metastatic potential.
BACKGROUND
The expression of N-ras and ets-1 proteins was investigated in an experimental model of chemically-induced carcinogenesis in normal and diabetic (type I) Sprague-Dawley rats.


METHODS
Tissue sections ranging from normal mucosa to moderately-differentiated oral squamous cell carcinoma were studied using monoclonal antibodies against N-ras and ets-1 proteins.


RESULTS
In diabetic rats, N-ras expression increased with tumor advancement, while in normal rats N-ras was not detected in initial stages of oral oncogenesis and increased only in well-differentiated OSCC. The same pattern of elevated ets-1 expression was observed both in diabetic and normal rats, but in cancerous stages this expression was higher in diabetic than in normal rats.


CONCLUSIONS
It seems that diabetes may contribute to increased cell proliferation due to N-ras constitutive activation, as well as to enhanced invasion and metastatic potential by increasing ets-1 levels.
Vairaktaris
Eleftherios
E
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University ofAthens Medical School, Athens, Greece. lvairakt@med.uoa.gr
Goutzanis
Lambros
L
Kalokerinos
Giorgos
G
Yannopoulos
Athanasios
A
Yapijakis
Christos
C
Vassiliou
Stavros
S
Spyridonidou
Sofia
S
Vylliotis
Antonis
A
Nkenke
Emeka
E
Lazaris
Andreas C
AC
Tesseromatis
Christina
C
Patsouris
Efstratios
E
D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D001706:Biopsy; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary*; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D050784:Proto-Oncogene Protein c-ets-1 / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D018631:ras Proteins / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; C494043:Ets1 protein, rat; D050784:Proto-Oncogene Protein c-ets-1; D018631:ras Proteins