The components of the Wnt-signaling pathway are reported to be mutated in human cancer cells, but the relationship between the components and oral squamous carcinoma (SCC) is still unknown. In this study, we analyzed the epigenetic changes and expression patterns of four member proteins of the Wnt-signaling pathway and analyzed the mutations of β-catenin and AXIN 1 genes, in order to explore the roles of the pathway in the development of oral cancer. The results showed that there are no β-catenin and AXIN I gene mutations and no methylation of the CpG island of β-catenin, AXIN I and GSK3β genes in oral cancer cells; methylation of the CpG island of APC occurs in the pre-cancerous stage and it is a dynamic change; the aberrant expressions or abnormal localization of the Wnt-signaling pathway proteins have no relationship with methylation status or mutation. From our results, we suggest that the Wnt pathway related genes play a very limited role in the development of oral SCC.
