The role of podoplanin in the process of cellular remodelling in benign odontogenic tumors and oral malignant epithelial tumors

The association of podoplanin with ezrin, moesin, and RhoA in the process of cellular remodeling has been suggested but has not been investigated.The aim of this study is to verify the possible correlation between the expression of podoplanin with ezrin, moesin, and RhoA’s in two distinct types of oral neoplasias: benign odontogenic tumors (ameloblastomas, keratocystic odontogenic tumors, adenomatoid odontogenic tumors,calcifying epithelial odontogenic tumors, ameloblastic fibromas,ameloblastic fibro-odontomas, and calcifying cystic odontogenic tumors) and lip squamous cell carcinomas. The sample will be constituted by odontogenic tumors stored in the Pathologic Anatomy Service of the Department of Stomatology from Bauru School of Dentistry and by lip squamous cell carcinomas treated in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery and Otorhinolaryngology of the A.C. Camargo Hospital, São Paulo. The tumoral specimens will be immunohistochemically analyzed with anti-podoplanin, anti-ezrin, anti-moesin, and anti-RhoA antibodies by a semi-quantitative scoring method. The association between the staining of the proteins with demographic, clinic and microscopic variables will be analyzed by the Chi-square or Fischer’s test. To verify the association between podoplanin expression with ezrin, moesin and RhoA expression, Mann-Whitney or Kruskal-Wallis test will be performed. The survival rates (overall and disease-free survival) will be calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and the comparison of the survival curves will be performed using log-rank test. In all tests, p values lesser than 0.05 will be considered statistically significant. (AU)