Cytokeratins 14 and 19 in odontogenic cysts and tumors: a review

All mammal cells include a cytoplasmic fiber system essential for cell mobility, the cytoskeleton, formed by three main structural units and associated proteins: microfilaments, microtubules and intermediate filaments. Cytokeratins are intermediate filaments forming a complex network which extends from the nucleus surface to the peripheral cell sector, where they are inserted into desmosomes and hemidesmosomes. Cytokeratins 14 and 19 have been used as diagnosis and prognosis markers in various tumors of epithelial origin, not only to identify a cell as epithelial, but also to identify different stages during epithelial differentiation and to characterize the tumor. There are numerous studies in biomedical literature that have exemplified the utility of cytokeratins 14 and 19 to identify odontogenic epithelium. This review analyzes the utility of their immunologic expression in the different cysts and odontogenic tumors.