Expression of sexual hormones receptors in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Sexual hormones play an important role in expression of genes involved in a wide variety of biological and neoplastic processes. The information on Estrogen Receptors (ER) expression in non-target tissues is very few and, in particular, the studies in head and neck tumors are still controversial. Recent studies analyzed the role of Tamoxifen (TAM) on Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) lines in relation to the presence/absence of ER. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the expression of sexual hormones receptors mRNAs, in particular Estrogen Receptor alpha (ERα) and Androgen Receptor (AR) mRNA in OSCC tissues. The study group comprised 20 samples of OSCC, harvested from 20 otherwise healthy subjects (14 males and 6 females, mean age 58.2y, range 38-74). The control group was formed by 20 samples of normal mucosa harvested around the margins of the specimens (at least 1 cm from the lesion margins). Estrogens Receptor alpha (Era) and Androgen Receptor (AR) mRNA expressions were analyzed by RT-PCR carried out on total RNAs extracted from both cancerous and healthy tissues. Obtained data were evaluated by Shapiro-Walk normality test and compared by Student's t test. Results with p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. AR transcripts were less expressed in OSCC specimens than in healthy tissues, while levels of ERα transcripts significantly increased in tumor samples. These preliminary data show different expression patterns of AR and ERα mRNAs in malignant tissues of oral mucosa and could suggest an involvement of these sexual hormones in oral cancer