Contribution of NF-κB, TRAF1, and TRAF2 promoter methylation in Iranian patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

Many genetic modifications were seen to influence the growth of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) is a transcription factor that participates in inflammation, apoptosis, and cell survival and also causes invasion and metastasis. TRAF1 and TRAF2 have been recognized as genetic targets for NF-κB transcriptional activity. The current study investigated NF-κB, TRAF1, and TRAF2 gene promoter methylation patterns by employing a methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MS-PCR) in 86 paraffin wax embedded samples of OSCC patients and compared the results with 68 normal control tissues. Analysis of data showed that no significant relationship was found for promoter methylation of NF-κB gene between case and control groups (p-value = 0.999); besides, promoter methylation of TRAF1 and TRAF2 genes was not considerably different between these two groups (p-value = 0.411 and p-value = 0.866, respectively). The findings of this study suggest that there is no significant correlation between promoter methylation of all three genes and the risk of establishing OSCC.