[Study on cell proliferation of oral malignant tumor with transferrin receptor]

Transferrin receptor (TfR) is found in the vigorous proliferating cells. The author performed an immunohistochemical study on the TfR expression in the oral tissues and a flow cytometric analysis of TfR in the Hela cells with and without an anticancer drug (CDDP). Immunohistochemically a strong reaction of the TfR was clearly found in the basal and parabasal layers of the normal epithelium and malignant tumors but rarely found in the benign tumors. In the well differentiated carcinomas, the degree of staining was not so high as compared with the poorly differentiated ones. The fluorescence intensity of the cells in the CDDP 0.5 micrograms/ml group was not different from that in the control group. The intensity in the 1.0 micrograms/ml, 24 hr group was almost the same as that in the control group, but in the 1.0 micrograms/ml, 48 hr group a decrease of 18% and in the 72 hr group a decrease of 23% were observed. The intensity in the 2.0 micrograms/ml, 24 hr group decreased by 10%, and in the 2.0 micrograms/ml, 48 and 72 hr groups, it decreased more radically but a number of dead cells was recognized. From these results, the quantity of the TfR seemed to be parallel to the degree of the proliferative ability of the cancer cells. Examination with TfR can be helpful for the diagnosis and the determination of the therapeutic effect on oral cancer.