Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition Markers in OSMF

Plain-language summary

Oral Sub mucous Fibrosis (OSMF) is essentially an imbalance between collagen metabolism and wound healing mechanism induced by arecanut chewing habit. Clinically the disease progresses in stages with patients presenting with burning sensation, intolerance to spicy food, vesicles particularly on the palate, ulceration and dryness of the mouth , fibrosis of the oral mucosa, leading to lips, tongue, and palate rigidity and finally trismus. As the disease is progressively debilitating and has potential to turn in to malignant cancer a study was designed to assess if there any tissue or saliva markers that can be assessed for early diagnosis and indicate malignant transformation if any. Participants who had OSMF and habit history, patients without OSMF but habit history formed the case group where as normal patients without OSMF and no habit history were in control group. Eligible candidates who consented to participate in study were subjected to biopsy procedure and also their saliva samples were collected. Biopsy samples were subjected to immunohistochemistry (IHC) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to assess the EMT markers like vimentin, e-cadherin and collagen IV. miRNA copies were extracted from saliva and were subjected RT-PCR. Research question was: 1. Is EMT a positive signature in OSMF. 2. Does histopathological grading and dysplasia in OSMF have any correlation with EMT. 3. Can aberrant EMT markers be a reliable indicator for risk assessment of early malignant transformation. 4. Can expression of mi RNA 21 in saliva predict the disease severity and more importantly assess risk of early malignant transformation in OSMF.

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