An immunohistochemical study of p53 expressions in oral submucous fibrosis

BACKGROUND: The objective of this histopathological study was to identify the expression of tumor suppressor gene p53 and to detect the correlation between p53 expression and the degree of dysplasia in oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF). METHODS: A sample size of 30 OSMF patients irrespective of sex was taken up for the study. The tissue samples obtained were subjected to immunohistochemical method to detect p53 protein. The technique used was indirect super sensitive Polymer-HRP IHC detection system. The p53 positive samples were evaluated on a 4-point scale, which ranged from 3+ to negative. RESULTS: Out of 30 cases 3(10%) cases were negative for p53 expression and 13(43.3%) showed + expression, and 14(46.6%) showed ++ expression. On application of Mantel-Haenszel Chi-Square test a statistically significant P <=0.05 i.e. (P=0.012) was obtained and there was Linear-by-Linear association between p53 expressions and dysplasia that showed the point probability of 0.006. CONCLUSION: Immunohistochemistry is a powerful tool to identify distinct patterns of gene expression in premalignant disorders and also Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas (OSCC) from different populations. In the present study, a significant number of samples of OSMF were positive for p53 protein.