[Immunohistochemical study on keratin of squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix].

An immunohistochemical study of squamous metaplasia (n = 10), dysplasia (n = 18), squamous cell carcinoma (n = 48) and 3 cases of adenosquamous carcinoma of the uterine cervix with anti-56KD keratin and 68KD keratin antibodies was performed. In the cases of squamous metaplasia, there were two types of staining of which one type had 56KD positive and 68KD negative and another type had both positive. In the cases of dysplasia, there were two types of staining the same as in squamous metaplasia. But in the cases of carcinoma in situ (CIS) (n = 25), there were three types of staining of which the first type had both 56KD and 68KD negative (n = 7), the second type had 56KD positive and 68KD negative (n = 15), and the third type had both 56KD and 68KD positive (n = 3). In invasive carcinoma (n = 23), there were two types of staining the same as in dysplasia of which one type had 56KD positive and 68KD negative (n = 17) and another type had both positive (n = 6). The keratin negative cases in CIS showed morphologically atypical reserve cell hyperplasia composed of atypical small cells with round nuclei and had a small lesion compared with other types. This result suggested that keratin negative CIS was an early form of CIS which was keratin positive. The results indicating that all dysplasia had 56KD keratin positive and CIS had not always 56KD keratin positive suggested that dysplasia was not always a precursor lesion of CIS.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)