Genetic Alteration in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Detected by Arbitrarily Primed Polymerase Chain Reaction

Oral cancer ranks as one of the top ten cancers in Thailand. Molecular carcinogenesis of this disease remains unknown. The purpose of this report was to identify the genetic alteration profile in Thai oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients using arbitrarily primed PCR and to determine the association between genetic alterations and clinico-pathological characteristics. Band alteration profiles in the 33 OSCC tissues were compared with corresponding normal tissues amplified from 60 arbitrary primers using arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) were identified with 12 primers. Among these, 45 band patterns presented the alteration ranged from 36% to 88%. Primer AD15 at 750 base pairs (AD15-750bp) was found to have both the highest band alteration (88%) and the highest band loss (37%). The highest DNA band amplification was found in primer AX11-1300bp (52%). Primer AX-11 at 1300 base pairs at the altered frequency of 52% was significantly associated with smoking (p=0.007), and primer N20 at 800 base pairs showed association with low grade tumors (p=0.030). Our results indicate that AP-PCR is a useful technique for detecting genetic alteration in oral squamous cell carcinomas and to provide various genetic alternative data.