Studies on the Contribution of Cox-2 Expression in the Progression of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and H-Ras Activation

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the H-ras and Cox-2 gene expression in tumors from Iranian Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) patients. Fresh tumor biopsies removed from oral cavity were collected from 67 new cases. Total RNA was extracted from biopsies and processed for quantification of H-ras and Cox-2 specific RNA expression using real-time PCR (QPCR). In addition, 59 gingival biopsies from apparently normal individuals were processed for QPCR assays. The results showed that Cox-2 expression at mRNA levels was at minimal levels in normal gingival biopsies. However, there was a surge in Cox-2 expression in tumor tissues (11.5 fold, p