Morphometric study of desmosomes from oral squamous cell carcinoma

The authors studied ultrastructural characteristics of desmosomes from oral squamous cell carcinoma, reporting the cellular differentiation and size of the desmosomes. The length of the desmosome profiles was measured with a Zeiss KS-300. The desmosomes were grouped according to their size and the tumor histological grading. Statistical analysis indicated a significant correlation (p < .001) between the size of the desmosomes and the histological grading group of the malignancy. The comparison of the desmosome size among the tumor histological grading groups also showed significant difference (p < .001). A multiple comparisons test indicated homogeneity in the size of desmosomes within the histological grading groups: 100% in the well differentiated, 95.2% in the moderately differentiated, and 50% in the poorly differentiated group. The preliminary data strongly suggest that the homogeneity of length of the desmosome profiles may be exploited for diagnostic strategies.