Review: Benign Fibro-osseous lesions is a generic term that includes a group of diseases affecting jaw and facial bones. Myofibroblasts (MFs) are cells that share properties of fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells. They have a main role in tissue growth, development and healing, and during organ fibrosis and cancers. Alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) is recognized to be present in smooth muscle cells, myoepithelial cells, pericytes. So it used to identify soft tissue neoplasms of smooth muscle, myoepithelial and myofibroblastic origin. Ki67 is one of the markers which is used to detect cellular proliferation in growing cells.
Aim of study: The present study aimed to examine the immunohistochemical labeling of α-SMA in juvenile ossifying fibromas (JOFs), central ossifying fibromas (COFs) and peripheral ossifying fibromas (POFs) and correlate its expression with their proliferative ability through Ki67expression.
Material and Methods: Immunohistochemical expression of α-SMA and Ki67 was evaluated in 10 samples of each JOF, COF, and POF.
Results: JOFs showed the highest mean value of α-SMA and Ki67 expression (16.69±5.25) (17.04±2.75) followed by COFs group (5.93±1.94) (8.33±1.23) while POFs showed the lowest mean value (1.54±0.64) (3.14±0.95), respectively, with a statistically significant positive correlation between α-SMA and Ki67 in all groups together (P-value ≤0.05).
Conclusion: Overexpression and significant positive correlation between α-SMA and Ki67 expression in JOFs, COFs, and POFs indicate the important role of MFs in the aggressive behavior of JOFs when compared with COFs and POFs through enhancing cellular proliferation, cellular migration, angiogenesis, and extracellular proteolytic activity and influencing matrix formation.