Association of Macrophages With Angiogenesis in Oral Epithelial Dysplasia, Oral Verrucous Carcinoma, and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: An Immunohistochemical Study

The present study aimed to elucidate the role of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and angiogenesis in tumor progression by assessing their immunohistochemical expression in oral epithelial dysplasia (OED), oral verrucous carcinoma (OVC), and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). About 20 histopathologically confirmed cases of OED, OVC, and OSCC each and 10 cases of normal oral mucosa taken as controls were stained immunohistochemically using CD68 and CD31 antibodies. The average TAM count and the microvessel density (MVD) were calculated for each group and expressed as mean +/- SD and compared using the Mann-Whitney U Test. Pearson correlation was applied to assess the correlation between TAM and MVD in different groups. The CD68 count was found to be significantly higher in all the groups as compared with controls, with the highest counts in OSCC, followed by OED and OVC. MVD was significantly higher in all the test groups as compared with controls. The increase in MVD was highly significant in OSCC as compared with OVC, and in OVC as compared with OED. No association could be determined between TAM and MVD. There does not seem to be any direct influence of macrophages on angiogenesis in the microenvironment of OED, OVC, and OSCC.