Department of Endocrinology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
J Endocrinol Invest. 2013 Mar;36(3):174-9. doi: 10.3275/8472. Epub 2012 Jun 25.
FSH receptor (FSHR) expression is restricted to gonads, where it drives FSH-dependent cell differentiation; in addition, FSHR plays an important role in the regulation of ovarian angiogenesis. Recently, FHSR expression has been shown in blood vessels of various tumors. However, pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (p-NET), which have high-degree blood supply, were not included in that study. The aim of this study was to evaluate FSHR expression in p-NET. FSHR expression was evaluated in tumor samples from 30 patients with p-NET by immunohistochemistry and Western blot; fluorescence microscopy was used to localize FSHR in specific cells from tissue samples. von Willebrand factor (vWF) and chromograninA (chrA) was used as blood vessel and NET cells marker, respectively, to co-localize FSHR. FSHR expression was detected in all p-NET by immunohistochemistry. Western blot confirmed FSHR expression on p- NET although different FSHR isoforms, ranging from 240 kD to 55 kD were found in the samples studied. Surprisingly, FSHR co-localized with chrA but not with vWF, suggesting that neoplastic cells of neuroendocrine origin rather than blood vessels expressed FSHR. No relationship was found between degree of FSHR expression and histology of p-NET. FSHR may be aberrantly expressed in neoplastic cells from p-NET and not in tumor blood vessels; however, its biological significance as well as its clinical relevance remains to be elucidated.
卵泡刺激素受体（FSHR）表达局限于性腺，在那里它驱动 FSH 依赖性细胞分化；此外，FSHR 在卵巢血管生成的调节中发挥重要作用。最近，已经在各种肿瘤的血管中显示出 FHSR 的表达。然而，该研究未包括具有高度血液供应的胰腺神经内分泌肿瘤（p-NET）。本研究旨在评估 p-NET 中 FSHR 的表达。通过免疫组织化学和 Western blot 评估了 30 例 p-NET 患者肿瘤样本中的 FSHR 表达；荧光显微镜用于定位组织样本中特定细胞中的 FSHR。血管标志物 von Willebrand 因子（vWF）和神经内分泌细胞标志物 chromograninA（chrA）分别用于 FSHR 的共定位。免疫组织化学检测到所有 p-NET 中均存在 FSHR 表达。Western blot 证实了 p-NET 中 FSHR 的表达，尽管在所研究的样本中发现了从 240 kD 到 55 kD 的不同 FSHR 同工型。令人惊讶的是，FSHR 与 chrA 共定位，但与 vWF 不共定位，这表明表达 FSHR 的是神经内分泌来源的肿瘤细胞，而不是血管。FSHR 表达程度与 p-NET 的组织学之间未发现相关性。FSHR 可能在 p-NET 的肿瘤细胞中异常表达，而不在肿瘤血管中表达；然而，其生物学意义及其临床相关性仍有待阐明。
