This Article Order Full text via Infotrieve Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lindberg, K. Articles by Rheinwald, J. G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lindberg, K. Articles by Rheinwald, J. G.

American Journal of Pathology, Vol 134, 89-98, Copyright © 1989 by American Society for Investigative Pathology

REGULAR ARTICLES

Suprabasal 40 kd keratin (K19) expression as an immunohistologic marker of premalignancy in oral epithelium

K Lindberg and JG Rheinwald
Department of Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.

The authors have studied the expression of keratin 19 in normal oral mucosa and in oral lesions exhibiting a range of histopathologic changes that are thought to precede squamous cell carcinoma. Formalin- fixed, paraffin-embedded sections were pretreated with pronase and stained with a K19-specific antibody by the avidin-biotin immunoperoxidase method. In nonkeratinized mucosa, whether normal or benign hyperplastic, K19 was detectable in the basal cell layer. In keratinized mucosa, whether normal or benign hyperplastic, there was no detectable K19. All lesions from any oral site that exhibited atypia diagnosed from hematoxylin and eosin stained sections as moderate-to- severe dysplasia or carcinoma in situ, whether hyperkeratotic or not, stained strongly for K19 in the basal and suprabasal cell layers. The number of cell layers that were K19-positive correlated with the level in the epithelium to which dysplasia persisted. Suprabasal K19 staining tended to occur in regions of the epithelium in which expression of the terminal differentiation protein involucrin was delayed or absent. Thus, K19 expression may be linked to the retention of stem cell character or a state otherwise uncommitted to terminal squamous differentiation. Suprabasal K19 staining is clearly correlated with premalignant change in oral epithelium and therefore promises to be a useful tool in oral histopathologic diagnosis.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				X.-H. Tang, B. Knudsen, D. Bemis, S. Tickoo, and L. J. Gudas Oral Cavity and Esophageal Carcinogenesis Modeled in Carcinogen-Treated Mice Clin. Cancer Res., January 1, 2004; 10(1): 301 - 313. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Reibel PROGNOSISOF ORAL PRE-MALIGNANT LESIONS: SIGNIFICANCEOF CLINICAL, HISTOPATHOLOGICAL, AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS Crit. Rev. Oral. Biol. Med., January 1, 2003; 14(1): 47 - 62. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				M. G. C. T. van Oijen and P. J. Slootweg Oral Field Cancerization: Carcinogen-induced Independent Events or Micrometastatic Deposits? Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., March 1, 2000; 9(3): 249 - 256. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				D. Crowe Retinoic acid mediates post-transcriptional regulation of keratin 19 mRNA levels J. Cell Sci., January 9, 1993; 106(1): 183 - 188. [Abstract] [PDF]