Molecular biomarkers of cell proliferation in ameloblastomas

Abstract

Cell proliferation is a vital biological process that is important for all living organisms because of its role in growth and the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. The control of this important process differs greatly among benign and malignant neoplasms, and the evaluation of cell proliferation in neoplasms has become a common tool used by pathologists to provide useful information pertaining to diagnosis, clinical behavior, and treatment. The usefulness of information regarding cell proliferation has led to numerous studies on the value of these methods for diagnosing different types of tumors and for clinical decision making. Ameloblastomas are no exception. This review discusses the use of several classical molecular proliferation markers, including Ki-67, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, cyclin D1 and DNA topoisomerase II alpha, to characterize ameloblastomas and proposes the use of new proliferation markers used previously to characterize other neoplasms. The use of these biomarkers offers valuable opportunities to evaluate the biological behavior of this type of odontogenic tumor.

Keywords: Ameloblastoma, Ki-67, Proliferating cell nuclear antigen, cyclin D1, DNA topoisomerase

Core tip: Specific molecular markers are characteristic of particular cellular events such as proliferation, and in this context, “proliferation markers” refer to specific proteins or other factors in actively growing and dividing cells, whose presence serves as an indicator for such cells. In this mini-review, we aim to provide an overview of the methods currently available for the assessment of proliferation, and we review the different cell proliferation markers used to assess the biological behavior of ameloblastomas. In addition, we propose a new maker.