mTORC1 and mTORC2 Expression Levels in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: An Immunohistochemical and Clinicopathological Study

摘要

Background/Aim: Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) plays a critical role in the regulation of tumor cell motility, invasion and cancer cell metastasis. mTOR consists of two separate multi-protein complexes, mTOR complex (mTORC) 1 and mTORC2. Materials and Methods: We investigated the expression levels of mTORC1 and mTORC2 immunohistochemically in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Results: mTORC1 and mTORC2 were more highly expressed in tumors than in normal oral mucosa. mTORC1 expression was correlated with T classification, N classification, and survival rate (p0.05), whereas mTORC2 expression was only correlated with T classification (p0.05). Histologically, the expression levels of mTORC1 and mTORC2 correlated with cancer cell invasion and the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (p0.05), respectively. Expression levels of vascular endothelial growth factors and hypoxia-inducible factor 1 in the mTORC1 (-)/mTORC2 (+) group were significantly lower than those in other groups. Conclusion: These findings suggested that mTORC1 and mTORC2 could be promising anti-tumor targets in OSCC, and mTORC1 (-)/mTORC2 (+) may have a correlation with the malignant potential of OSCC.