Increased levels of CK19 mRNA in oral squamous cell carcinoma tissue detected by relative quantification with real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common malignant tumour in the oral and maxillofacial region and has a poor prognosis. Cytokeratin 19 (CK19) is a component of cytoskeleton protein. Previous studies have reported abnormal expression of CK19 protein in OSCC tissue. This study is to investigate the quantitative level of CK19 gene transcript in OSCC tissue as well as its clinical significance. Thirty-one OSCC patients (26 males and 5 females) took part in the present study, aged 34-78 years (mean 58.2 years). The level of CK19 mRNA was detected using fluorescent quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in cancerous and paracancerous tissues. The relative quantification in cancerous tissue compared with paracancerous tissue was calculated using the 2(-DeltaDeltaCt) equation. The level of CK19 mRNA in cancerous tissue from OSCC patients was 2.21-fold higher than that in paracancerous tissue (P=0.020), and the amplicon was specific without genomic DNA contamination. The level of CK19 mRNA correlated significantly with the pathological differentiation grade of OSCC tissue (P=0.025), with poorer differentiation indicating a higher level of CK19 mRNA. These results suggest that fluorescent quantitative real-time RT-PCR is accurate and reliable for the detection of CK19 gene transcript levels in OSCC tissue. The level of CK19 mRNA was increased in OSCC tissue, and this was significantly correlated with the pathological differentiation grade.