Immunohistochemical analysis of heat-shock protein 27 in human tooth germ and ameloblastoma

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the study was to demonstrate the presence of heat-shock protein (HSP) 27 in developing tooth germs and ameloblastoma and compare their expressions. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Mahatma Gandhi Postgraduate Institute, Puducherry. Orofacial complexes of five abortus fetuses between 9th and 18th weeks were processed for fetal sections and ten formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues for ameloblastoma were taken up from the archives of the department. All tissues were stained for routine hematoxylin and eosin, and immunohistochemistry was done using anti-HSP27 antibody. Results: Dental lamina was found positive for HSP27 in all the five cases; succedaneous bud stage was found positive in two of five cases. Stellate reticulum and outer enamel epithelium were found positive in one each of five cases and inner enamel epithelium was negative in all five cases. In ameloblastoma, ten cases were studied in which positivity was seen in the columnar or cuboidal cells of the tumor islands in various histological variants of ameloblastoma. Conclusion: The immunostaining pattern of HSP27 revealed that the differentiation level of ameloblastoma corresponds to the differentiation level of odontogenic cells in tooth germ and that HSP27 might play a role in this. Further, HSP27 can be taken up as a marker of differentiation of ameloblasts along with markers such as cytokeratin 19.