Shuster S, Huszar M, Geiger B
Department of Pathology, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Rehovot, Israel.
Am J Dermatopathol. 1985;7 Suppl:79-86. doi: 10.1097/00000372-198501001-00015.
Intermediate filament subunits in normal cells and in their malignant derivatives can be used as specific markers for their histogenetic origins. We have studied five neoplasms of the skin in which positive identification of vimentin containing intermediate filaments by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy helped to establish the diagnosis of malignant melanoma. All of the neoplasms included in this study posed problems in differential diagnosis by conventional light microscopy and yielded equivocal results by conventional histochemistry. Thus, definitive distinction between poorly differentiated carcinoma and poorly differentiated melanoma could not be made by conventional microscopy. In all of the neoplasms described here, immunolabeling with antibodies against different intermediate filaments demonstrated positive staining for vimentin only. This intermediate filament subunit is present in melanocytes (as well as in many mesenchymal cells) but not in epithelial cells. Our study indicates that this technique may be valuable in differential diagnosis of malignant melanoma, particularly in instances where cells lack melanin or show other atypical morphologic features.
正常细胞及其恶性衍生物中的中间丝亚基可作为其组织发生起源的特异性标志物。我们研究了五种皮肤肿瘤，通过间接免疫荧光显微镜对含波形蛋白的中间丝进行阳性鉴定，有助于确立恶性黑色素瘤的诊断。本研究中纳入的所有肿瘤在常规光学显微镜下的鉴别诊断均存在问题，常规组织化学检查结果也不明确。因此，常规显微镜无法明确区分低分化癌和低分化黑色素瘤。在这里描述的所有肿瘤中，用针对不同中间丝的抗体进行免疫标记仅显示波形蛋白呈阳性染色。这种中间丝亚基存在于黑素细胞（以及许多间充质细胞）中，但不存在于上皮细胞中。我们的研究表明，该技术在恶性黑色素瘤的鉴别诊断中可能具有重要价值，特别是在细胞缺乏黑色素或表现出其他非典型形态特征的情况下。
