ALTERATION OF SOME BASEMENT MEMBRANE PROTEINS IN THE BASAL CELL CARCINOMA AND SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA

Abstract

The basement membrane is an extracellular scaffold found at the epithelial-connective tissue junction. In general BM is a continous structure but in invasive carcinoma it may undergo alteration of its components such as laminin for BM and fibronectin for the stroma.

The aim of this work was to perform an immunohistochemical study to examin the expression of laminin and fibronectin in the BMZ of BCC and SCC of the skin to correlate the finding with the growth rate and grade of differentiation.

The present work was carried out on 20 patients and 5 normal controls. 10 patients were diagnosed clinically and histopathologically as BCC, and the other 10 patients were diagnosed clinically and histopathologically as SCC. Excisional biopsies were taken and tissue sections were prepared for histopathological examination using H & E and immunohis­ tochemical study using monoclanal antibodies to fibronectin and laminin.

The laminin staining in normal skin, shows a continuous linear staining at the DEJ, around blood vessles, sweat glands and nerve fibers.