Divergence in distribution and prognostic significance of major basement components in laryngeal carcinomas

In previous studies, we demonstrated a loss of major basement membrane (BM) components in laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas and provided initial evid ence that this was of potential prognostic significance. In our current stu dy, we extended the panel of BM antibodies and enlarged our study group in order to perform a multivariate statistical analysis. We analyzed 26 laryng eal squamous cell carcinomas immunohistochemically for the distribution of the BM-components collagen IV, collagen VII, laminin-1, laminin-5, perlecan and fibronectin. The resulting data were correlated with clinical prognost ic factors and statistical correlation coefficients were determined for ind ependent uni- and multivariate analysis. All carcinomas analyzed revealed d efects of the peritumoral BM with more extensive loss of collagen VII than collagen IV, laminin-l, perlecan and fibronectin. Laminin-5 in contrast was present even in poorly differentiated tumors showing an enhanced intracyto plasmatic staining in the tumor cells. Furthermore, our statistical analysi s did not show independent prognostic significance of any of the BM-compone nts. Our observations indicate a divergence between the loss of several maj or BM-components (collagens IV, VII, laminin-l, perlecan) and an enhanced d eposition of laminin-5. This suggests a severly altered cell-matrix interac tion, since laminin-5 links the collagen VII-containing anchoring fibrils t o cell receptors of the integrin type.