Oral squamous cell carcinoma may originate from bone marrow-derived stem cells

In this study, sex chromosome analysis was performed in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) that developed after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from the opposite gender to examine whether OSCC originates from bone marrow (BM) stem cells. Gene expression patterns in patients with possible BM stem cell-derived OSCC were compared with those in patients with normally developed OSCC. We used microarray analysis to examine whether OSCC with a possible BM origin shows specific pattern of the gene expression. We compared the gene expression profiles of BM stem cell-derived OSCC and normal OSCC tissues.