Ouban Abderrahman, Hamdan Hana, Hakam Ardeshir, Ahmed Atif A
Saba University School of Medicine, Saba, Netherlands Antilles.
Int J Surg Pathol. 2012 Apr;20(2):132-8. doi: 10.1177/1066896911424488. Epub 2011 Oct 13.
Claudins are the main sealing proteins of the intercellular tight junctions and play an important role in cancer cell progression and dissemination. This study examined and compared the expression of claudin-1 by immunohistochemistry in 60 squamous cell carcinomas of different tissue types and normal 33 controls, arranged in 2 tissue microarray slides. A score was generated to classify claudin-1 expression into negative, low, medium, and high. Most squamous cell carcinomas (91.67%) showed positive membranous staining. Medium to high claudin-1 expression was prevalent in carcinomas from the head-neck, skin, and genitourinary regions and was less frequent in other locations. An inverse correlation was noted between claudin-1 expression and tumor grade in tumors of the genitourinary and breast-gynecologic regions. Of the normal organs, significant claudin-1 expression was present mainly in the skin whereas other epithelial tissues had only minimal to low expression levels. Claudin-1 expression in squamous cell carcinoma varies in organ-specific manner reflecting influence of local factors and different mechanisms of claudin-1 expression. Knowledge of this fact is important in planning biologic therapy targeting claudin-1.
紧密连接蛋白是细胞间紧密连接的主要密封蛋白，在癌细胞的进展和扩散中起重要作用。本研究通过免疫组织化学方法检测并比较了60例不同组织类型的鳞状细胞癌及33例正常对照中紧密连接蛋白-1的表达情况，这些样本被排列在2张组织微阵列玻片上。生成了一个评分来将紧密连接蛋白-1的表达分为阴性、低表达、中等表达和高表达。大多数鳞状细胞癌（91.67%）表现为膜阳性染色。中等至高表达的紧密连接蛋白-1在头颈部、皮肤和泌尿生殖区域的癌组织中较为普遍，在其他部位则较少见。在泌尿生殖系统和乳腺-妇科区域的肿瘤中，紧密连接蛋白-1的表达与肿瘤分级呈负相关。在正常器官中，显著的紧密连接蛋白-1表达主要存在于皮肤，而其他上皮组织的表达水平仅为最低至低表达。鳞状细胞癌中紧密连接蛋白-1的表达以器官特异性方式变化，反映了局部因素的影响以及紧密连接蛋白-1表达的不同机制。了解这一事实对于规划针对紧密连接蛋白-1的生物治疗具有重要意义。
