p53 protein expression in corneal squamous cell carcinomas of dogs

Ocular tumors play an increasing concern in veterinary ophthalmology. Corneal squamous cell carcinoma is unfrequent in dogs, and by this way it has little studies. Studies that investigated the carcinogenesis mechanisms wich could help to the development of ocular squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in dog are rare. The aim of this work was to identify by immunohistochemical techniques, the p53 protein expression in the spontaneous dog corneal SCC. For this work, were used five cases of corneal SCC and one case of actinic keratitis. The sections were obtained from paraffin-wax blocks and submitted to histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis. All the six samples showed immunolabeling to cytokeratin and p53 protein. These results support the conclusions that the immunoreactivity of p53 protein by immunohistochemistry is present in canine corneal SCC suppporting its role in carcinogenesis of this tumor, but not provides prognostic indicators in cases of SCC corneal in dog; and can be a association of exposure to solar radiation with the possible mutation of the TP53 gene.