A Study of Prognostic Factors in Young Patients With Non-HPV Oral Cancer in Central Europe.

The etiological factors of squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck have been well known for a long time. It is also well known that the incidence of oral cancer diagnosed in younger patients is on the rise. Due to the young age of these patients, the increase in the number of these cases and the fact that many of them neither smoke nor drink alcohol it has been suggested that other factors might be at play in the carcinogenesis of oral cancer. Thus, along the classic etiological factors of smoking and alcohol abuse certain molecular marker anomalies and the human papilloma virus (HPV) have emerged as potential factors. The aim of the present study is to verify the potential prognostic factors and to map the differences in biomarker expression between the young and the old patient groups. In the present study the immunohistochemical profile of samples obtained from oral squamous cell carcinomas was studied and compared with various clinico-pathological parameters. In 88 samples the expressions of p16, p53, Ki67, EGFR were studied with a tissue microarray technique under standard reaction conditions as well as the detection and typing of HPV infection with the Full Spectrum HPV DNA method. The biomarker expression profile of young patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma was compared to that of older patients (above 50). A significant difference was found between the immunohistochemical profile of the young and old patient groups in p16, Ki67 expression. The overall survival and progression free survival were influenced by p16 expression in young age.

Effect of rat spinal cord injury (hemisection) on the ex vivo uptake and release of [3H]noradrenaline from a slice preparation.

We measured the ex vivo uptake and release of [3H]noradrenaline ([3H]NA) from perfused rat spinal cord slice preparations at 1, 3 and 14days after unilateral hemisection-induced spinal cord injury (SCI) compared with control slice preparations. After surgical hemisection under anaesthesia, the rats showed characteristic signs of hemiplegia, with no movement of the ipsilateral hindlimb. After 3days, the electron microscopy images showed overall degeneration of neuronal organelles and the myelin sheath, but the synapses seemed to be intact. In ex vivo experiments, the spinal cord injury did not influence uptake but increased [3H]NA release at rest and in response to axonal stimulation. The effect of a selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor, nisoxetine, was studied to identify the mechanisms underlying the increase in NA release. Nisoxetine potentiated stimulation-evoked [3H]NA release from the non-injured tissue, but it gradually lost its effectiveness after injury, depending on the time (1 and 3days) elapsed after hemisection, indicating that the noradrenaline transporter binding sites of the terminals become impaired after decentralisation.