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  3. Associations between MTA1 and the outcome of oral leukoplakia: evidence from cohort studies and functional analyses

Associations between MTA1 and the outcome of oral leukoplakia: evidence from cohort studies and functional analyses

  • Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. 2025 Oct;140(4):455-466. doi: 10.1016/j.oooo.2025.04.005.
Qiyue Zhang 1,  Lin Ye 1,  Ying Wang 1,  Tiantian Xu 1,  Shiyu Zhang 1,  Zhiyong Wang 2,  Qianming Chen 1,  Jiang Liu 3,  Xin Zeng 4,  Jing Li 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and National Center for Stomatology & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Research Unit of Oral Carcinogenesis and Management & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
  • 2 Stomatology Hospital, School of Stomatology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang Provincial Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedical Research of Zhejiang Province, Cancer Center of Zhejiang University, Engineering Research Center of Oral Biomaterials and Devices of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, 310000, China.
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and National Center for Stomatology & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Research Unit of Oral Carcinogenesis and Management & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 4 State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and National Center for Stomatology & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Research Unit of Oral Carcinogenesis and Management & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 5 State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and National Center for Stomatology & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Research Unit of Oral Carcinogenesis and Management & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 40374499 DOI: 10.1016/j.oooo.2025.04.005
Abstract

Objective: To describe the relationship between MTA1 expression and Oral leukoplakia (OLK) prognosis in cohort studies and its possible mechanism.

Materials and methods: We assessed MTA1 expression levels in OLK and OSCC tissues and cell lines using immunohistochemistry and Western blot. Functional analyses were performed in vitro by CCK-8 and Western blot assays. We analyzed overall survival in our OSCC cohort and TCGA dataset and analyzed the microenvironmental landscape of different MTA1 expression patterns in OLK and OSCC by multiplex immunohistochemistry. The COX proportional hazards regression model was used to determine multivariate hazard ratios for overall survival.

Results: MTA1 is abnormally highly expressed in OLK and OSCC both in cells and tissue, promoting DOK cell proliferation and altering EMT through E-cadherin, Wnt3a, and β-catenin. Moreover, MTA1 gradually increased with increasing abnormal OLK proliferation and negatively correlated with OSCC prognosis. Notably, MTA1 shows a positive correlation with M2 macrophage infiltration levels. Additionally, we found that low expression of MTA1 and a low M2/M1 ratio panel predict good patient prognosis in OSCC.

Conclusion: We suggest that the aberrant expression of MTA1 may contribute to the malignant transformation of OLK and that MTA1 may represent a new prognostic marker for OLK and OSCC.

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