Study of the biologic behavior of odontogenic keratocyst and orthokeratinaized odontogenic cyst using TGF-alpha and P53 markers

Odontogenic keratocyst (OKC) is an aggressive cyst, and its recurrence rate is higher than that of other odontogenic cysts. Orthokeratinized odontogenic cyst (OOC) is less aggressive than OKC, but bears the probability of carcinomatous changes. In this study, we evaluated the expression and intensity of P53 and TGF-alpha in order to compare the biologic behavior or probable carcinomatous changes of these two cysts.In this cross-sectional study, 15 OKC and 15 OOC were stained immunohistochemically for P53 and TGF-alpha using the Novolink polymer method. Then, all slides were examined by an optical microscope with 400× magnification, and the stained cells in the basal and parabasal layers were counted. Finally, the results were analyzed by the Mann–Whitney and Wilcoxon tests (P-value < 0.05).The difference between the expression of P53 and TGF alpha in the basal layer of OKC and OOC was not statistically significant (P-value > 0.05), but the expression of P53 and TGF-alpha in the parabasal layer in OKC was statistically higher compared to OOC (P < 0.05).Considering the known role of P53 and TGF-alpha in malignant changes and the higher expression of P53 and TGF-alpha in OKC compared to those in OOC, the probability of carcinomatous changes was higher in OKC than in OOC.