Jakubiak-Wielganowicz Magdalena, Kubiak Robert, Sygut Jacek, Pomorski Lech, Kordek Radzisław
Department of Pathology, Copernicus Memorial Hospital, Lódź.
Pol J Pathol. 2003;54(2):111-5.
Galectin-3 was primarily reported to be a marker distinguishing thyroid adenomas and carcinomas. To check the usefulness of anti-galectin-3 immunohistochemistry, we studied its expression in 42 follicular adenomas and 42 follicular carcinomas. Eight cases out of 42 follicular adenomas (19%) presented focal or diffuse galectin-3 immunoexpression. From 42 cases of follicular carcinomas, six cases did not present galectin-3 immunopositivity at all. Three of these cases were widely invasive (one with focal anaplastic feature and one oxyphilic), and three other ones were minimally invasive. Two other carcinoma cases had only small foci positive with galectin-3 antibody, thirteen cases presented positivity mostly restricted to peripheral part of the tumor and 21 cases possessed diffuse, strong reaction. Two adenomas presented galectin-3 positive foci, and these cells had light nuclear changes superficially suggesting follicular variant of papillary carcinoma, mostly because of nuclear clearing. In these tumors, adenoma diagnosis was supported by experts, but we can not exclude that they represent early phase of malignisation, although such theory needs to be prooved. Our study does not allow to use galectin-3 as a highly specific marker, differentiating between follicular benign and malignant tumor, although it may be used as an additive tool.
半乳糖凝集素-3最初被报道为区分甲状腺腺瘤和癌的标志物。为了检验抗半乳糖凝集素-3免疫组化的实用性，我们研究了其在42例滤泡性腺瘤和42例滤泡性癌中的表达。42例滤泡性腺瘤中有8例（19%）呈现局灶性或弥漫性半乳糖凝集素-3免疫表达。在42例滤泡性癌中，有6例完全没有半乳糖凝集素-3免疫阳性。其中3例为广泛浸润性（1例具有局灶性间变特征，1例为嗜酸性），另外3例为微浸润性。另外2例癌仅在小灶性区域对半乳糖凝集素-3抗体呈阳性，13例的阳性主要局限于肿瘤周边部分，21例呈现弥漫性强反应。2例腺瘤出现半乳糖凝集素-3阳性灶，这些细胞表面有轻度核改变，提示为乳头状癌的滤泡变体，主要是因为核淡染。在这些肿瘤中，专家支持腺瘤的诊断，但我们不能排除它们代表恶性转化的早期阶段，尽管这一理论需要得到证实。我们的研究不允许将半乳糖凝集素-3用作区分滤泡性良性和恶性肿瘤的高度特异性标志物，尽管它可以用作辅助工具。
