Expression of cell cycle regulator p16 is not affected by diabetes during oral oncogenesis.
BACKGROUND
The tumor suppressor protein p16 plays a vital role in the regulation of the cell cycle. The expression of p16 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 oral mucosa to moderately differentiated oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) were studied immunohistochemically.


RESULTS
In normal rats p16 expression increased gradually during oral oncogenesis, but a significant increase was observed only in moderately differentiated OSCC (p=0.038). On the contrary, in diabetic rats the detected gradual increase was significant in hyperplasia, dysplasia, early invasion and well-differentiated OSCC (p<0.001). Nevertheless, there was no significant difference in p16 expression during oral oncogenesis between normal and diabetic animals.


CONCLUSIONS
It seems that the expression of cell cycle regulator p16 is not affected by diabetes in the studied animal model of oral oncogenesis.
Vairaktaris
Eleftherios
E
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Athens Medical School, Athens 11521, Greece. lvairakt@med.uoa.gr
Goutzanis
Lambros
L
Nkenke
Emeka
E
Spyridonidou
Sofia
S
Vassiliou
Stavros
S
Derka
Spyridoula
S
Vylliotis
Antonis
A
Yapijakis
Christos
C
Lazaris
Andreas
A
Patsouris
Efstratios
E
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000473:pathology; D019941:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16 / Q000378:metabolism*; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
D019941:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16