1 Division of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Shinshu University School of Medicine , Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan .
Thyroid. 2013 Dec;23(12):1553-60. doi: 10.1089/thy.2012.0613. Epub 2013 Sep 4.
Polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyl transferase-3 (GalNAc-T3) has been reportedly expressed in several human adenocarcinomas and is associated with clinicopathological features of tumors. We investigated the clinicopathological significance of GalNAc-T3 in thyroid cancer.
We evaluated the expression of GalNAc-T3 in 167 patients with thyroid cancer using a specific antibody and analyzed the association between its expression and clinicopathological features.
GalNAc-T3 was expressed in 85.8% of normal follicular epithelial cells. In papillary carcinomas, positive staining was observed in 101 (73.7%) cases. Well-differentiated components (papillary and follicular) of papillary carcinomas were significantly more frequently positive than poorly differentiated components (trabecular and solid) (p<0.01), and GalNAc-T3 was highly expressed in papillary carcinomas that had invaded beyond the thyroid capsule (p=0.026). GalNAc-T3 was expressed in 40% and 20% of well and poorly differentiated components of follicular carcinomas, respectively. Thirteen of 15 anaplastic carcinomas were negative for GalNAc-T3 and thyroglobulin. Positive staining for GalNAc-T3 was not observed in any of the medullary carcinomas.
Our data suggest that GalNAc-T3 expression may be a useful indicator of tumor differentiation in thyroid carcinomas.
多肽 N-乙酰氨基半乳糖转移酶-3（GalNAc-T3）已在几种人类腺癌中被报道表达，并与肿瘤的临床病理特征相关。我们研究了 GalNAc-T3 在甲状腺癌中的临床病理意义。
我们使用特异性抗体评估了 167 例甲状腺癌患者中 GalNAc-T3 的表达，并分析了其表达与临床病理特征之间的关系。
GalNAc-T3 在正常滤泡上皮细胞中表达，阳性率为 85.8%。在乳头状癌中，有 101 例（73.7%）呈阳性染色。分化较好的成分（乳头状和滤泡状）明显比分化较差的成分（小梁状和实性）更容易呈阳性（p<0.01），并且 GalNAc-T3 在甲状腺包膜外侵袭的乳头状癌中表达较高（p=0.026）。GalNAc-T3 在滤泡状癌的分化良好和分化不良成分中的表达率分别为 40%和 20%。15 例间变性癌中有 13 例 GalNAc-T3 和甲状腺球蛋白阴性。GalNAc-T3 在任何髓样癌中均未呈阳性染色。
我们的数据表明，GalNAc-T3 表达可能是甲状腺癌分化的一个有用指标。
