Effect of snuff on cytokeratin expression in oral vestibular sulcus epithelium

Abstract

Differences in the expression of cytokeratins (CK) in specimens obtained from snuff-affected oral epithelium of the maxillary vestibular sulcus and clinically normal sulcular epithelium were studied by indirect immunofluorescence staining with a panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). CK 14, a marker of stratified squamous epithelium was not seen expressed in 3/11 of the snuff user's specimens. Terminal differentiation markers, typical of cornified epithelia (CK 1, 9, 10 and 11), were detected suprabasally in the snuff user's keratosis but not in the normal control epithelium. The use of snuff seemed to change the CK staining pattern of the mucosa so that it resembles more that of a cornified type of epithelium. Simple epithelial-type CK were included in the study in order to establish the CK profile of the snuff-induced keratosis, for comparison with normal and dysplastic lesions. MAb to CK 7 and 19 showed reactivity in the basal cells and suprabasally whereas the monospecific MAb anti-CK 7 showed suprabasal staining both in the control and affected epithelia. By using MAbs, we found no immunoreactivity against CK 18 either in normal or affected epithelia, whereas we found suprabasal reaction (5/11) against CK 8 in the snuff user's epithelia. The two MAbs demonstrating the expression of CK 19, normally confined to the basal cells of the stratified squamous epithelium, showed variable patterns of expression both in basal cells and suprabasally in the snuff lesions. The results show that use of oral snuff causes some alterations in the CK expression pattern of the affected epithelium. Whether the alterations are indicative of a premalignant change is, however, uncertain. The results encourage further studies on the subject.

Proliferation and differentation markers in snuff‐induced oral mucosal lesions

“…In the present study, almost all samples showed weak immunopositivity for CK19 without any association to CK 18 expression. Consistent with our results, one study showed no up‐regulation of CK19 expression in Swedish snuff‐induced lesions (41), whereas another study showed contradictory results with CK 19 expression in basal and also suprabasal cells (42).…”

Clinical, pathological, cellular and molecular lesions caused by oral smokeless tobacco – a review

“…Increased expression of keratins 13 and 14 in Sudanese snuff dippers was reported (86) indicating dysreg-ulation of keratinocyte maturation and a third of the lesions also expressed K19 a basal keratin suggesting epithelial de-differentiation. Suprabasal expression of K19 was also reported by Luomanen et al (87) in oral biopsies of 11 snuff users from Sweden. Increased tenascin expression was reported more conspicuous in biopsies of ST users than in smokers (88).…”

Choline Acetyltransferase, Acetylcholinesterase, and Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors of Human Gingival and Esophageal Epithelia

“…Both smokeless tobacco ("snuff') and pure nicotine produce similar oral hyperkeratotic lesions in laboratory animals (Hirsch and Thilander, 1981;Hirsch and Johansson, 1983;Chen, 1989;Chen et al, 1994). Oral smokeless tobacco causes alterations in the cytokeratin expression pattem of the affected epithelium, primarily by the expression of markers of terminal differentiation, such as cytokeratins 1, 9, 10, and 11 (Luomanen et al, 1997). The effects of tobacco could be mediated by epithelial nAChRs, because nicotine can enhance epithelial differentiation in the oral mucosa equivalent in vitro (Kwon et al, 1999).…”