Higher blood vessel density in comparison to the lymphatic vessels in oral squamous cell carcinoma

INTRODUCTION

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is characterized by local invasion and the development of cervical metastasis. In the tongue, an association between the invasion of the lymphatic vessels and the development of metastasis in the regional lymph nodes has been demonstrated. Moreover, invasion of the blood vessels is associated with greater recurrence and poorer prognoses. Therefore, the presence and density of lymphatic and blood vessels in intra- and peritumoral tissues should play an important role in the progression, dissemination and metastasis of carcinomas. However, the evidence regarding OSCC is inconclusive. The aim of this study was to determine the comparison and association between the lymphatic (D2-40) and blood vessel (CD34) densities in intratumoral OSCC tissue.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Thirty-seven cases diagnosed as OSCC between the years 2000 and 2008 were obtained from the Anatomic Pathology Service of the School of Dentistry, University of Chile. The immunohistochemical markers D2-40 and CD34 were used, and the densities (mm(2)) of lymphatic vessels (LVD) and blood vessels (BVD) in the intratumoral region were determined. The relationship between LVD and BVD values was evaluated.

RESULTS

There were significant association between the CD34 and D2-40 expression (rho=0.4, P<0.05) and between the LVD and the location in the tongue (P=0.019). The BVD was greater (128.0 vessels/mm(2)) than the LVD (42.9 vessels/mm(2)), and there was a positive correlation between the LVD and BVD.

CONCLUSIONS

In OSCC, the BVD is greater than the LVD, and there is a moderate correlation between the two quantities.

Costs of locomotion and vertic dynamics of cephalopods and fish

The world's oceans are three-dimensional habitats that support high diversity and biomass. Because the densities of most of the constituents of life are greater than that of seawater, planktonic and pelagic organisms had to evolve a host of mechanisms to occupy the third dimension. Some microscopic organisms survive at the surface by dividing rapidly in vertically well mixed zones, but most organisms, small and large, have antisinking strategies and structures that maintain vertical position and mobility. All of these mechanisms have energetic costs, ranging from the "foregone metabolic benefits" and increased drag of storing high-energy, low-density lipids to direct energy consumption for dynamic lift. Defining the niches in the mesopelagic zone, understanding evolution, and applying such ecological concepts as optimal foraging require good estimates of these costs. The extreme cases above are reasonably well quantified in fishes, but the energetic costs of dynamic physiological mechanisms like swim bladders are not; nor are the costs of maintaining vertical position for the chief invertebrate competitors, the cephalopods. This article evaluates a matrix of buoyancy mechanisms in different circumstances, including vacuum systems and ammonium storage, based on new data on the metabolic cost of creating buoyancy in Sepia officinalis.