Abstract: Objective: To investigate the expression of SOX2 in OSCC and to evaluate its relationship with the expression of E-cad and Vim. Methods: The expressions of SOX2, E-cad, and Vim in 50 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma and 13 specimens of oral pericancerous epithelium were detected by immunohistochemical staining method. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 19.0 software package. Results: The expression of SOX2 in oral epithelium was negative and the expression of SOX2 increased with the decrease of tissue type in OSCC (P<0.05). The expression of E-cad in oral epithelium was positive and the expression of E-cad decreased with the decrease of tissue type in OSCC (P<0.05). The expression of Vim in oral epithelium was negative and the expression of Vim increased with the decrease of tissue type in OSCC (P<0.05). In OSCC, the expressions of SOX2 and E-cad were negatively correlated (P<0.05), the expressions of SOX2 and Vim were positively correlated (P<0.05), and the expressions of E-cad and Vim were negatively correlated (P<0.05). Conclusion: Various expressions of SOX2 were found in different histological grade while the expression enhanced with the degrading of the differentiation degree, and there were negative correlations between SOX2 and epithelial mesenchymal transformation marker E-cad, and positive correlations between SOX2 and the marker Vim.

Key words: SOX2, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition, Squamous cell carcinoma