[Study of cell adhesion in cancer of the larynx]

E48 and Ep-CAM are involved in epithelial cell adhesion in healthy and neoplastic tissues. E48 is associated with desmosomes (desmosome core) and Ep-CAM molecules are present mainly in the basolateral plasma membrane. These molecules are involved in classic cadherin-modulated cell-cell interactions. We used immunohistochemistry (avidin-biotin-peroxidase) to investigate the pattern of expression of both molecules in healthy tissue and squamous-cell carcinoma of the larynx and in metastatic and healthy lymph nodes. Specimens were obtained from 18 patients with squamous-cell carcinoma. In the healthy tissue, every specimen had E48 in the suprabasal layers (15 samples) and expression was intense in half of them. Ep-CAM was expressed in the basal layer of 12 of 15 cases, also with high intensity in a half of them. In squamous-cell carcinoma of the larynx, E48 had a homogeneous distribution while Ep-CAM was prevalent in the outer part of the tumor. Both cell adhesion molecules, E48 and Ep-CAM, are involved in the invasion process of larynx tumor.