Decreased expression of Annexin A1 correlates with pathologic differentiation grade in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Previously, we established an in vitro cellular carcinogenesis model of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), including the human immortalized oral epithelia cells (HIOECs) and its derived cancerous HB96 cells. In this study, comparative proteomic analysis identified that Annexin A1 was one of the significantly down-regulated genes in the cancerous HB96 cells. To investigate Annexin A1 down-regulation and its potential usefulness as a molecular marker in OSCC, we further screened Annexin A1 expressions with a panel of OSCC lines, and clinical samples of cancerous and the paired adjacent normal tissues from primary OSCC patients. By Western blot analysis and real-time PCR, we showed that both Annexin A1 mRNA and protein expressions decreased in OSCC cell lines except in two cell lines for the mRNA levels. Immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR also showed that both Annexin A1 mRNA and protein expressions decreased in the cancerous tissues from OSCC patients compared with those in the paired adjacent non-malignant epithelia. More importantly, both Annexin A1 mRNA and protein expressions negatively correlated with the pathologic differentiation grades of cancerous tissues. The lower Annexin A1 mRNA or protein expressions correlated with the poorer pathologic differentiation grades. These results suggest that decreased expression of Annexin A1 contributes to the cancerous progression of OSCC, and Annexin A1 may be a potential biomarker for pathologic differentiation grade of OSCC.