Premium
Immunohistochemical demonstration of ras p21 oncogene product in normal, benign, and malignant human thyroid tissues
Author(s) -
Mizukami Yuji,
omura Akitaka,
Hashimoto Takuma,
Terahata Shintaro,
Matsubara Fujitsugu,
Michigishi Takatoshi,
Noguchi Masakuni
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19880301)61:5<873::aid-cncr2820610504>3.0.co;2-w
Subject(s) - thyroid , immunohistochemistry , pathology , oncogene , thyroiditis , cytoplasm , thyroid carcinoma , medicine , cancer research , biology , cancer , endocrinology , cell cycle , biochemistry
The p21 protein product of the cellular oncogene ras , designated ras p21, has been detected immunohistochemically in normal, benign and malignant human thyroid tissues. With the monoclonal antibody RAP‐5 generated against a synthetic peptide corresponding to amino acid positions 10 to 17 of the ras p21 protein and an avidin—biotin—peroxidase complex (ABC), the expression of the ras p21 was evaluated in paraffin‐embedded sections. Western blot analysis using fresh thyroid carcinoma tissue revealed double protein bands, one band was at molecular weight 21,000 and the other was a more rapidly migrating band at the molecular weight 17,500. Immunohistochemically, papillary adenocarcinomas of the thyroid showed moderate to intense stainings for ras p21 in most cases. Cytoplasmic and apical surface stainings were the most common patterns of immunoreactivity. Adenomas showed variable ras p21 positivity in cytoplasm and apical surface stainings of adenomas were negative to borderline in most cases. The cytoplasm of tissues of Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Graves' disease, and normal thyroid tissues was uniformly ras p21 positive, but the apical cell surface was nonreactive for ras p21 in all tissues. Judging from the findings obtained on this large series of normal, benign, and malignant thyroid tissues, the elevation of ras p21 may be a common event in thyroid neoplasm, and especially elevated ras expression in the apical cell surface may be characteristic to papillary carcinomas of the thyroid. This suggests that apical surface expression of ras p21 may be important in the development of thyroid carcinomas and be useful in differentiation of papillary adenocarcinoma.