Download PDF
Open Access
CC BY 4.0 · Eur J Dent
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1806930
Original Article

Prognostic Value of Beclin-1 and HIF-1α in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Authors

  • Nadia Attia Radi 

    1   Department of Oral and Dental Pathology, Faculty of Dental Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
    2   Department of Oral Histopathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Sinai University, Arish Branch, ElArich, Egypt

  • Doaa Adel Habba 

    1   Department of Oral and Dental Pathology, Faculty of Dental Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
    3   Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia

  • Seham Ibrahim Hallool 

    4   Department of Oral and Dental Biology, Faculty of Dental Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

  • Sulaiman Saeed Alqahtani 

    3   Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia

  • Hanaa Mohamed Abd Elsamia 

    5   Department of Oral and Dental Pathology, Faculty of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt
Further Information
Also available at
  Permissions and Reprints
Preview

Abstract

Objectives Certain factors that disturb the tumor microenvironment influence the promotion of tumorigenesis. Detecting gene expression at the protein level is highly valuable and complements the histopathological analysis achieved by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α accomplishes autophagy induction and regulation of autophagy-associated genes. So, this study was carried out to evaluate the tissue protein expression of Beclin-1 and HIF-1α using IHC and correlate their expression with the prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

Materials and Methods Immunohistochemical evaluation of Beclin-1 and HIF-1α was done in 5 samples of normal oral epithelial tissues and 45 samples of OSCC, which were classified histologically into 15 samples each of well, moderately, and poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma.

Results According to statistics, normal tissue had the highest values for Beclin-1, while poorly differentiated OSCC had the lowest mean area percentage. HIF-1α showed the opposite results. These results indicate that the association of both molecules has a greater role in the transformation from normal to different histopathological grades of OSCC.

Conclusion The close association between Beclin-1 and HIF-1α identified in the current study confirms hypoxia's critical role in autophagy activation. Moreover, reduced Beclin-1 and elevated HIF-1α expression were significantly associated with the histopathological grading of OSCC, supporting their pivotal role in the development and progression of OSCC.

Keywords

autophagy - Beclin-1 - HIF1α - OSCC

Note

This work has been performed at the Faculty of Dental Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.




Publication History

Article published online:
23 July 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
A-12, 2nd Floor, Sector 2, Noida-201301 UP, India