The pathological significance of Langerhans cells in oral cancer

Abstract

The functional role of Langerhans cells (LCs) in oral cancer was studied, based on a quantitative analysis of LCs in squamous cell carcinomas arising from the tongue. LCs were identified by their positiveness for S100‐protein and other cytological characters based on PAP method. LCs increased in number in the cancer region and showed an intimate relationship with lymphocytes in terms of their number and distribution. Moreover, in those cases with many LCs, clusters consisting of LCs and lymphocytes were often found to combine into “hydropic degeneration‐like” lesions as seen in allergic disease such as dermal lichen planus. These findings, as well as the review of literature, suggested some immunological role of LCs in oral carcinoma.

A comparative analysis of langerhans cell in oral epithelial dysplasia and oral squamous cell carcinoma using antibody CD-1a

“…[24,27,28] The authors agree with a previous study that the diminished infiltration of LCs within the tumor stroma might result as a consequence of the immunosuppressive effect of the tumor micro-environment. [29] Another possibility could be that the LCs in the tumor stroma exhibited a lack of CD1a expression under the influence of tumor-derived factors thereby providing an erroneous result. [30] In the present study CD1a antibody was used as the sole immunohistochemical marker and could have served as a drawback in the detection of those LCs which failed to express CD1a.…”

A comparative study on tissue processing procedures for the immunohistochemical investigation of oral mucosal Langerhans cells

“…However, paraffin waxembedded tissue offers potential advantages over frozen material in terms of superior histology, ease and economy of storage, destruction of pathogenic organisms and retrospective investigation of archive sources (Collings et al, 1984;Cerio et al, 1987). In wax-embedded tissue, anti-S100 antisera have been used to label oral mucosal Langerhans cells (Regezi et al, 1985;Kurihara et al, 1985;Charbit et al, 1986;Walsh et al, 1992), but melanocytes, another dendritic intra-epithelial cell population, are also S100-positive (Cocchia et al, 1981) and these cells are present at several intra-oral sites (Barrett & Beynon,199I). However, a monoclonal antibody against an epitope on the alpha chain of the HLADR molecule is now available which survives routine tissue fixation and processing (Adams et al, 1983;Epenetos et all 1985).…”

Distribution of Langerhans cells in clinically healthy human gingival epithelium with special emphasis on junctional epithelium

“…The precise role of LC in the oral mucosa is less well-established althotigt several studies suggest that LC here are also involved in reactions to antigen challenge under both normal and pathologic conditions (10)(11)(12)(13). In mouse oral mticosa of germ-free animals an increased number of LC has been observed in response to exogenous antigens (14).…”