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Localization of Thymosin β‐4 in Tumors
Author(s) -
LARSSON LARSINGE,
HOLCK SUSANNE
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1415.005
Subject(s) - thymosin , staining , pathology , cell , monoclonal antibody , cancer cell , breast cancer , cancer research , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , cancer , antibody , chemistry , immunology , medicine , biochemistry , genetics
: Overexpression of thymosin β‐4 has been linked to malignant progression but the localization of this polypeptide within tumors is incompletely known. We therefore examined breast cancers for thymosin β‐4 using immunofluorescence. Reactive cells were identified with monoclonal cell marker antibodies. A very heterogeneous staining pattern for thymosin β‐4 was observed. Thus, while leukocytes and macrophages showed intense reactivity for this polypeptide, cancer cells, and endothelial cells showed a much more variable reactivity. A similar heterogeneous staining was observed also in colorectal carcinomas. The degree of staining of breast cancer cells for thymosin β‐4 correlated neither to histological grade nor to endothelial cell staining. However, there was a tendency toward correlation ( P = 0.07) between staining of endothelial cells and histological grade. Treatment of cultured breast cancer cells (SK‐BR‐3) with 1–4 μg thymosin β‐4/mL significantly increased cell numbers, as determined by MTT‐assays. These data reveal an unexpected cellular heterogeneity of thymosin β‐4 expression in breast and colonic carcinomas and suggest that local release of this polypeptide in the tumor microenvironment may modulate tumor behavior .