Immunohistochemical Expression of MMP-9 and E-Cadherin in subtypes of Ameloblastoma

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Ameloblastomas have been analyzed histologically for diagnostics and its sub-classification; however, the analysis carried out so far does not provide any authentic evidence regarding prognosis of Ameloblastoma. Subject categorization is still a topic of debate. The purpose of this study was to determine the immuno-expression of markers such as MMP-9 and E-Cadherin in different sub-types of ameloblastoma and establish their correlation with histological variants. METHODS: Analytical study of 71 cases of ameloblastoma was conducted in AFIP Rawalpindi, between January to June, 2019. Samples were taken from different intraoral sites including the patients with tumor of ameloblast. The tumor was sub classified histologically on the basis of WHO classification. ‘Chi Square’ Test was applied to find the association of MMP-9 and E-Cadherin with histological variants of ameloblastoma. P-value ≤ 0.05 were found statistically significant. RESULTS: On histopathological sub-classification, 52.1% were diagnosed as follicular type, 23.9% were plexiform type, 14.1% were Acanthomatous type and 9.9% were of unicystic ameloblastoma. 80% of the total Acanthomatous type and 59% of the total plexiform had strong immuno-expression, which was significantly different from follicular type MMP-9 (p ≤ 0.05). All cases of unicystic ameloblastoma and 67.6% of follicular type showed strong immuno-expression significantly different from 20% of Acanthomatous type and 59% of plexiform type E-Cadherin (p ≥ 0.05). On the other hand, when statistical analysis was carried out, an inverse relation between MMP-9 and E-cadherin was observed. CONCLUSION: The effect of MMP-9 and E-cadherin in ameloblastoma is aggressive in nature and effectiveness was seen in subtypes of ameloblastoma.