Feline oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a highly invasive form of cancer in cats.\nIn human OSCC, cluster of differentiation 147 (CD147) contributes to inflammation and tumor\ninvasiveness. CD147 is a potential therapeutic target, but the expression of CD147 in feline OSCC\nhas not been examined. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine if cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2)\nand CD147 expression in feline OSCC biopsies was coordinated. Tumor cells were more likely to\nexpress COX-2 (22/43 cases or 51%) compared to stroma (8/43 or 19%) and adjacent oral epithelium\n(9/31 cases or 29%) (p < 0.05). CD147 was also more likely to occur in tumor cells compared to stroma\nand adjacent mucosa, with 21/43 (49%) of cases having >50% tumor cells with mild or moderate\nCD147 expression, compared to 9/28 (32%) in adjacent epithelium and only 5/43 (12%) in adjacent\nstroma (p < 0.05). In feline OSCC cell lines (SCCF1, SCCF2, and SCCF3), CD147 gene expression\nwas more consistently expressed compared to COX-2, which was 60-fold higher in SCCF2 cells\ncompared to SCCF1 cells (p < 0.05). CD147 expression did not correlate with COX-2 expression and\nprostaglandin E2 (PGE2) secretion, indicating that they may be independently regulated. CD147\npotentially represents a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of feline OSCC and further study\nof CD147 is warranted.
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