E-cadherin expression in acquired cholesteatoma

Objectives: The epithelial cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin is important for maintenance normal tissue architecture and for cell-cell communication and immune cell migration. E-cadherin is also present in cholesteatomas. This study determined E-cadherin expression in acquired cholesteatomas and analyzed its expression according to cholesteatoma clinical and histological characteristics. Methods: We investigated E-cadherin expression in 30 samples from operated patients with acquired middle ear cholesteatomas that were classified according to their clinical and histological characteristics. E-cadherin expression in cholesteatoma was determined immunohistochemically. A semi quantitative method was used to determine the index of expression of E-cadherin and t-tests, Mann-Whitney U tests and Spearman correlation analysis were used for statistical analysis. Results: We found significant expression of E-cadherin on CD1, CD3 total, CD4 (p<0.05), high expression of E-cadherin on CD8 total and CD19/CD38 lymphocytes (p<0.01) and very high expression of E-cadherin on mast cells and antigen-presenting cells, including Langerhans cells (p<0.005). We graduated results as no statistically significant (p>0.05), statistically significant (0.05>p>0.01), highly statistically significant (0.01>p>0.005) and very highly statistically significant (p<0.005). Conclusion: E-cadherin expression was the same in the cholesteatoma matrix in all samples. There were no differences in expression according to the clinical and histological characteristics of the cholesteatomas.