Expression Profiling of EMT Transcriptional Regulators ZEB1 and ZEB2 in Different Histopathological Grades of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients.

Background: Pakistan has a high burden of oral cancers, with a prevalence rate of around 9%. Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) accounts for about 90% of oral cancer cases. Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) gets highly stimulated in tumor cells by adopting subsequent malignant features of highly invasive cancer populations. Zinc Finger E-Box binding factors, ZEB1 and ZEB2, are regulatory proteins that promote EMT by suppressing the adherent ability of cells transforming into highly motile cancerous cells. The present study aimed to analyze the expression of EMT regulators, ZEB1 and ZEB2, and their association with the clinicopathological features in different grades of OSCC patients. Methods: Tissue samples were collected for both case and control groups from the recruited study participants. Cancer tissues (cases) were collected from the confirmed OSCC patients, and healthy tissues (controls) were collected from third-molar dental extraction patients. The study participants were recruited with informed consent and brief demographic and clinical characteristics. The case group was further segregated with respect to the histological cancer grading system into well-differentiated (WD), moderately differentiated (MD), and poorly differentiated (PD) squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) groups. RNA was extracted from the tissue samples for expression profiling of ZEB1 and ZEB2 genes through quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Results: All of the recruited participants had a mean age of 46.55 ± 11.7 (years), with most of them belonging to Urdu speaking ethnic group and were married. The BMI (kg/m Conclusion: High expressions of ZEBs have been significantly associated with cancer progression and poor health. However, no association was found between OSCC with other clinicopathological features when compared to healthy controls.