Characteristics and Effects of Muscle Fibers surrounding Lingual Carcinoma

Abstract

It has been suggested that dysphagia caused by excision of carcinoma of the tongue may be affected by the hypofunction of the surrounding muscle tissues, as well as by tissue defects. However, there have been no reports concerning how muscle fiber characteristics change in the regions surrounding the lesion after excision of the carcinoma. In this study, we investigated myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms at genetic levels in order to demonstrate the muscle fiber characteristics of the muscle tissues surrounding lingual carcinoma (the experimental group). High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) was used as a marker to examine whether tongue cancer actually developed. MyHC-2a expression was high in the experimental group. Thus, the marked changes of muscle fiber characteristics, as seen in this study, were considered to be a biological reaction to changing muscle characteristics for regenerating or maintaining normal muscle tissues against the muscle atrophy caused by carcinoma.

Development and Regeneration of Muscle, Tendon, and Myotendinous Junctions in Striated Skeletal Muscle

“…The released HMGB1 serves as an extracellular signaling molecule through its binding to advanced glycation end products (AGE) [ 42 ]. Therefore, the HMGB1 expression has been reported in various diseases, such as malignant tumors, sepsis, and arthritis [ 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Experiments to map the distribution of HMGB1 expressed in muscle fibers located in the vicinity of tongue cancer lesions confirmed the robust HMGB1 expression around the cancer lesion as a result of extracellular release of HMGB1; this is attributable to the necrosis of the muscle fibers around the cancer lesion [ 41 , 45 ].…”