Premium
Image analysis of platelet derived growth factor receptor‐beta (PDGFRβ) expression to determine the grade and dynamics of myelofibrosis in bone marrow biopsy samples
Author(s) -
Bedekovics Judit,
Szeghalmy Szilvia,
Beke Lívia,
Fazekas Attila,
Méhes Gábor
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
cytometry part b: clinical cytometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1552-4957
pISSN - 1552-4949
DOI - 10.1002/cyto.b.21167
Subject(s) - myelofibrosis , stromal cell , grading (engineering) , pathology , platelet derived growth factor receptor , bone marrow , biopsy , immunohistochemistry , fibrosis , medicine , growth factor , receptor , biology , ecology
Background Myelofibrosis (MF) is characterized by accumulation of stromal cells and extracellular matrix. Progression of fibrosis is an important clinical issue and monitoring is required for new therapeutic approaches. Currently, the quantification is based on semiquantitative evaluation of reticulin silver stained slides. We recently reported that platelet derived growth factor receptor beta (PDGFR β ) expression in fibroblasts is a useful marker of stromal activation. PDGFR β expression based scores represent significant differences in different MF grade which provides optimal source of quantification. In this study, slide‐based measurements were performed to support correlations of PDGFR β expression with MF grade. Methods Scanned image tiles from 79 bone marrow samples (BM) with different MF grades were evaluated for PDGFR β ‐related IHC parameters. Following the determination of immunopositive (brown component) and total area (region of interest) of the BM, PDGFR β related image parameters were defined and evaluated in comparison with the classical reticulin based grading. Results Eight PDGFR β expression related image parameters showed excellent correlation with the MF grade (correlation coefficient ranging between 0.79 and 0.83) and with PDGFR β score (0.76–0.87). Despite the significant sample heterogeneity, the parameters showed significant differences between fibrotic and nonfibrotic cases and between mild and advanced fibrosis. Distribution of values within a particular specimen emphasizes the heterogeneity of bone marrow involvement which may cause difficulties in semiquantitative methods. Conclusions Our results clearly demonstrated the correlation between MF and PDGFR β expression considering all relevant areas in BM samples. This method provides good basis for follow‐up comparison of the fibrotic samples. © 2014 International Clinical Cytometry Society