OSAKA UNIV,SCH MED,DIV SURG PATHOL,OSAKA 565,JAPAN.
Oncol Rep. 1995 Jul;2(4):525-8. doi: 10.3892/or.2.4.525.
High levels of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) have been detected in malignant tissues of various organs and these are thought to be related to the local invasion and distant metastasis of carcinomas. In the present study, the expression of u-PA was immunohistochemically investigated in various thyroid tissues by using formaline-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections. Normal thyroid expressed hardly any u-PA. In some hyperplasias, weak u-PA immunoreactivity was observed in small follicles and in clusters of follicular cells in the process of regenerating hyperplastic follicles. However very intense u-PA staining was observed in all cases of chronic thyroiditis in the small follicules surrounded by numerous lymphocytes. This indicates that u-PA must be strongly implicated in this disease together with various cytokines. As much as 90% of the carcinomas in our study expressed u-PA in the cytoplasm of carcinoma cells and the expression in carcinomas was much more extensive than that in benign adenomas. Although this carcinoma is known to have a generally good prognosis, our findings suggest that u-PA reflects malignancy in tumoral growth of the thyroid and modulates this growth from its early stage.
在各种器官的恶性组织中检测到高水平的尿激酶型纤溶酶原激活物 (u-PA)，这些被认为与癌的局部浸润和远处转移有关。在本研究中，通过使用福尔马林固定、石蜡包埋的组织切片，用免疫组织化学方法研究了各种甲状腺组织中的 u-PA 表达。正常甲状腺几乎不表达 u-PA。在一些增生中，在再生增生滤泡的过程中小滤泡和滤泡细胞簇中观察到弱的 u-PA 免疫反应性。然而，在所有慢性甲状腺炎的小滤泡中都观察到非常强烈的 u-PA 染色，这些小滤泡周围有大量淋巴细胞。这表明 u-PA 必须与各种细胞因子一起强烈参与这种疾病。我们研究中的 90%的癌在癌细胞的细胞质中表达 u-PA，并且在癌中的表达比在良性腺瘤中的表达更为广泛。尽管这种癌通常预后良好，但我们的研究结果表明，u-PA 反映了甲状腺肿瘤生长中的恶性程度，并从早期阶段调节这种生长。
