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Proteolytic tissue degradation is a typical phenomenon in inflammatory periodontal diseases. HtrA1 (High temperature requirement A 1) has a serine protease activity and is able to degrade fibronectin whose fragments induce the expression and secretion of several matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The aim of this study was to investigate for the first time if HtrA1 has a role in gingivitis and in generalized forms of chronic and aggressive periodontitis. Expression of HtrA1 was investigated in 16 clinically healthy gingiva, 16 gingivitis, 14 generalized chronic periodontitis and 10 generalized aggressive periodontitis by immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR. Statistical comparisons were performed by the Kruskall-Wallis test. Significantly higher levels of HtrA1 mRNA and protein expression were observed in pathological respect to healthy tissues. In particular, we detected an increase of plasma cell HtrA1 immunostaining from gingivitis to chronic and aggressive periodontitis, with the higher intensity in aggressive disease. In addition, we observed the presence of HtrA1 in normal and pathological epithelium, with an increased expression, particularly in its superficial layer, associated with increasingly severe forms of periodontal disease. We can affirm that HtrA1 expression in plasma cells could be correlated with the destruction of pathological periodontal tissue, probably due to its ability to trigger the overproduction of MMPs and to increase the inflammatory mediators TNF-α and IL-1β by inhibition of TGF-β. Moreover, epithelial HtrA1 immunostaining suggests a participation of the molecule in the host inflammatory immune responses necessary for the control of periodontal infection.

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Aim:Our objective in conducting this study was to estimate the presence of lymphatic, blood vessel and neural invasion on Hematoxylin & Eosin (H&E) staining and also, the microvessel density detected by immunohistochemistry (MVD), in gastric adenocarcinoma, as well as their relationship with the clinical, pathological and biological characteristics of the tumors. Materials and Methods: To assess the vascular and neural invasion in our study, we included 367 patients diagnosed with gastric cancer. For the immunohistochemical study of MVD, from all cases with gastric carcinoma, we selected 28 patients, 12 patients with gastric biopsy and 16 patients with total gastric resection, which established the TNM stage. All the gastric biopsies and surgical samples were prepared using the paraffin-embedding method and H&E staining and using anti-CD31 and anti-CD34 antibodies for the assessment of intratumoral MVD. Results: The positive blood vessel invasion was associated in a significant way with advanced stages (p <0.01) and high grade carcinomas (p<0.01), while lymphatic invasion was very significant associated only with advanced stage tumors (p < 0.001). Regarding peri-and intraneural invasion, there was a significant matching with the female gender (p < 0.05), advanced stages of disease (p < 0.001), the diffuse type of gastric carcinoma (p <0.05), and with poorly differentiated tumors (p<0.05). There was a close relationship between CD34 MVD and the diffuse type of gastric carcinomas, according to Lauren's classification (p<0.05), and poorly differentiated tumors (p<0.05). The CD34 MVD values mean was significant correlated with TNM stage,