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Mechanobiology of Disease
Poster Abstracts
72
2-POS
Board 2
Unrevealing Nanomechanical Signatures of Epithelial and Connective Tissue of Oral
Submucous Fibrosis
Anji Anura
1
, Dabanjan Das
1
, Mousumi Pal
2
, Ranjan R. Paul
2
, Jyotirmoy Chatterjee
1
.
1
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India,
2
Gurunanak Institute
of Dental Science and Research, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India.
Deciphering altered biomechanical profiles in oral cancer and precancer is important for detailed
understanding of malignancy which could have implications in diagnosis and treatment. In this
work PeakForce quantitative nanomechanicsatomic force microscopy (PF-QNM-AFM) was
performed to investigate nano-mechanical attributes as well as ultra-structural changes in
epithelium and connective tissue of normal oral mucosa, submucous fibrosis. The topography
obtained from normal mucosa demonstrated irregular and loosely arranged collagen fibres with
regular bandwidth and periodicity (67 nm) in lamina propria. However, in oral submucous
fibrosis, collagen fibres were arranged in bundles with uneven thickness and irregular periodicity
indicating abnormal collagen synthesis. The nano-mechanical analysis indicated that OSF had
higher Young’s modulus (20-40 kPa)than normal oral tissue (1-20 kPa). Moreover, connective
tissue of OSF showed a high adhesion force and reduced deformation indicating high stiffness
due to compact collagen I deposition in the extracelluar matrix as confirmed from
immunohistochemical and RT-PCR study. The epithelium of oral submucous fibrosis was found
to have high Young’s modulus(3-10 kPa) , stiffness, adhesion force and reduced deformation to
that of normal oral epithelium (0.5- 4 kPa) which might be attributed to associated epithelial
atrophy. Thus, the present study elucidates altered mechanobiological attributes of oral precancer
which are corroborated with ultrastructural changes and relevant gene expression. In the context
of integrative mechanotyping in cancer study, the present study will be contributory in holistic
understanding of oral precancer pathology, its relation to malignant transformation and providing
essential insight for developing therapeutic measures.