Background: Ameloblastoma is the most common clinically significant odontogenic tumor, known for its locally invasive potential and frequent recurrences unless treated radically. Endocan is a soluble proteoglycan which is reported to have prognostic implications in multiple human diseases and tumors. This study aims to describe the expression of endocan in ameloblastoma. Materials and methods: With immunoperoxidase method; tissue sections of formalin fixed- paraffin embedded blocks for ameloblastomas were stained with monoclonal antibodies to endocan, the localization of the endocan expression was examined and the resulting scores of the tissue sections were analyzed according to age, sex, site and tumor subtype. Results: endocan was found to be expressed in peripheral and central epithelial cells of ameloblastoma tumor islands and stroma to different extents; a selectively increased expression was noted in epithelial cells with acanthomatous differentiation. Tumor epithelial cells of plexiform subtype tend to have higher expression levels of endocan. However, the associations did not reach statistically significant levels. Conclusions: Endocan is expressed specifically in various populations of tumor epithelial cells and stromal elements of ameloblastoma. The prognostic significance of the expression needs to be clarified in further studies.
