ABSTRACT
Introduction: Oral Leukoplakia is the second most common oral potentially malignant disorder encountered in day-to-day clinical practice, with an overall global prevalence of 4.11%. The rate of its malignant transformation varies worldwide. Aims & Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess CD 138 and CD43 immunoreactivity in oral epithelial dysplasia. Materials & Methods: Immunohistochemistry was performed on fifteen formalin-fixed oral epithelial dysplasia tissues for CD 43 (n=15) and CD 138 (n=15) which were obtained from archives at Oral cancer research and coordinating centre, Malaysia. Results: The expression of CD 43 in non-hematopoietic tissues was negative in all cases, but epithelium with dysplastic alterations had low or weak CD 138 expression between dysplastic tissue and non-dysplastic epithelium, there was a substantial difference in staining intensity. Conclusion: Oral carcinogenesis is a multistep process, and cancer driver genes have been shown to have vastly diverse effects in various tissues. CD 138 expression was shown to be lower in tissues undergoing dysplastic alterations, which could be a sign of oral epithelial dysplasia with a high risk of malignancy.