Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and microvessel density in oral tumorigenesis

Abstract

Context:Significant increase in vascularity occurs during the transition from normal oral mucosa, through differing degrees of dysplasia, to invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).Aims:To evaluate microvessel density (MVD) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in oral tumorigenesis and correlate it with the clinicopathological characteristics.Settings and Design:VEGF expression and MVD were quantified immunohistochemically using anti-VEGF and anti-CD34 antibody.Materials and Methods:For this study we used a total of 60 archival specimens, including 10 normal oral mucosa (NOM), 7 mild epithelial dysplasia (Mild ED), 8 moderate epithelial dysplasia (Mod ED), 5 severe epithelial dysplasia (SED), 14 well-differentiated SCC, 11 moderately-differentiated SCC, and 5 poorly-differentiated SCC. VEGF expression was assessed in relation to the localization, intensity, and area of the immunohistochemically stained cells. MVD was evaluated using the Image-Pro® Plus software.Statistical Analysis:One-way ANOVA (F test) was carried out for comparing the parameters for multiple groups such as different histopathological grades of dysplasia and carcinoma. Comparison between groups was carried out using the Student's ‘t’ test. Correlations between VEGF score and MVD were estimated using the Karl Pearson coefficient of correlation.Results:VEGF and MVD appeared to increase with disease progression and were statistically higher in oral SCC than in epithelial dysplasia and normal buccal mucosa. There was significant correlation between VEGF expression and MVD.Conclusions:These findings indicate that VEGF expression is upregulated during head and neck tumorigenesis.

VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 in lip carcinogenesis and its association with microvessel density

“…Although previous reports have demonstrated an association between higher MVD and VEGF expression in OSCC [44,45], in the present study, no correlation was found between MVD and VEGFR1 These results indicate that VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 are related to tissue angiogenesis but may not be the only receptors involved in this process.…”

“…The tumour microenvironment plays a determinant role in this process, since angiogenic stimuli such as VEGF are not only produced by tumour cells but also by stromal and inflammatory cells [29,45]. In the present study, an increase in epithelial VEGFR1 expression was associated with an increase in epithelial and inflammatory VEGFR2 expression.…”

Phosphatase of Regenerating Liver-3 Induces Angiogenesis by Increasing Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Phosphorylation in Endometrial Adenocarcinoma

“…The expression of VEGF was significantly correlated with MVD. This is in agreement with the findings of Astekar et al [21]. Our results showed that PRL-3 overexpression was positively associated with the expression of VEGF.…”

Hemoglobin parameters from diffuse reflectance data

“…2 In oral tissue, microvessel density is reported to increase as pathology changes from normal to dysplastic to squamous cell carcinoma. 3,4 For breast cancer, some studies have demonstrated a correlation between angiogenesis (microvessel density) and clinicopathologic parameters, although there are discrepancies in results, some of which likely arise as a consequence of the variety of techniques (e.g., immunohistochemistry and visual microscopy) used to assess angiogenesis and microvessel density. 5 Neovascularization plays an important role in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) as summarized by Chang et al 6 Microvessel density increases with severity of CIN as assessed by counting of blood vessels in biopsy specimens.…”