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E‐cadherin expression in follicular carcinoma of the thyroid
Author(s) -
Kato Noriko,
Tsuchiya Takashi,
Tamura Gen,
Motoyama Teiichi
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
pathology international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1827
pISSN - 1320-5463
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-1827.2002.01310.x
Subject(s) - cadherin , follicular carcinoma , follicular phase , pathology , thyroid , thyroid carcinoma , medicine , immunohistochemistry , carcinoma , expression (computer science) , cancer research , biology , papillary carcinoma , computer science , cell , genetics , programming language
Follicular carcinoma (FC) of the thyroid is distinguished from follicular adenoma (FA) by confirmation of invasion or metastasis. However, it is still unknown how FC acquires the potential for invasion or metastasis. Twenty early FC (pT1 and pT2) were analyzed for immunohistochemical E‐cadherin (E‐CD) expression. Four of four (100%) widely invasive FC showed reduced E‐CD expression, whereas only two of 16 minimally invasive FC showed reduced expression. In most of the minimally invasive FC, both E‐CD and β ‐catenin were expressed on cell–cell boundaries, even in areas where capsular invasion occurred. These results suggest that the mechanism of invasion may be different between widely invasive FC and minimally invasive FC, and that E‐CD is probably responsible for the invasion of widely invasive FC. Analysis of methylation of the E‐CD gene promoter using the methylation‐specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) method revealed no methylated alleles in the DNA from FC.