c-fos oncogene underexpression in salivary gland tumors as measured by in situ hybridization. |
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Authors: | C Birek E Lui and I Dardick |
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Institution: | Department of Oral Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. |
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Abstract: | Tissue from 35 salivary gland tumors and 14 normal salivary glands was analyzed by in situ hybridization and computer-assisted morphometry for the expression of the c-fos oncogene. The normal salivary gland tissues were found to express c-fos focally, mainly in the acinar secretory cells. The majority of the cells in the normal tissues showed a high level of expression (47.74 +/- 5.31% of cells had 46 to 60 grains per cell and another 45.79 +/- 2.18% showed > 60 grains per cell). All the tumors examined exhibited a relatively low, uniform distribution of c-fos expression. For example, in the poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas, 96.83 +/- 04% of the cells were found to have < 15 grains per cell. A general linear model for multivariate analysis showed a significant difference between the various tumor types and the normal salivary gland tissues (P = 0.0001). These data support the hypothesis that salivary gland tumors belong to a group of epithelial neoplasias in which the loss of cellular differentiation is linked with underexpression of the c-fos oncogene. |
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