Figure 1.
Collagen XVII immunostaining. (A) Normal oral mucosa: staining in the cell membranes of basal keratinocytes (arrows). (B) Mild dysplasia: signal mainly missing from basal cells (arrowheads). Faint signal in some basal keratinocytes (arrows). (C) Moderate dysplasia: intense staining in basal and suprabasal (arrows) cells. (D) Severe dysplasia: strong signal throughout the epithelium (inset), some negative basal cells (arrowhead). (E) Grade I SCC: immunoreaction mainly restricted to the peripheral cells of tumor islands (arrows), only a few positive central cells (arrowhead). (F) Grade I SCC: negative control, pre-immune rabbit serum. (G) Grade II SCC: strong staining in both central and peripheral cells of tumor islands. (H) Grade II SCC: intense staining in carcinoma cells at the invasive front (arrows, inset). Bars = 40 µm.
