Bongiovanni Laura, Brachelente Chiara, Moreno Eva, Welle Monika M
Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, 3584 CT Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, 64100 Teramo, Italy.
Vet Sci. 2020 May 8;7(2):62. doi: 10.3390/vetsci7020062.
Evidence is accumulating that tumour development is driven by cancer stem cells (CSCs). In order to understand the presence and potential contribution of stem cells (SCs) as tumour-initiating cells in canine cutaneous tumours, we selected three putative SC markers (Lgr5, Lgr6 and Sox9) and investigated their expression pattern, level of protein and mRNA expression, in 43 canine hair follicle (HF) and 18 canine cutaneous epidermal tumours by immunohistochemistry and qRT-PCR, using normal skin samples as controls. Lgr5 protein expression was not detected in epidermal and HF tumours; however, mRNA overexpression was evident in some HF tumours. Sox9 was expressed in several tumour cases, both at the protein and mRNA level. The Lgr6 antibody tested was not suitable for formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue samples, but gene showed higher expression in several samples of both HF and epidermal tumours compared with normal skin. Significantly higher mRNA expression levels of the three SC markers were found in trichoblastomas (TB) compared with basal cell carcinomas (BCC). The present results indicated that canine HF and epidermal tumours might have common tumour-initiating cells. The mRNA expression of the three selected SC markers, especially Lgr5, could be potentially useful in the distinction between canine TB and BCC.
越来越多的证据表明肿瘤发展是由癌症干细胞（CSCs）驱动的。为了了解干细胞（SCs）作为犬皮肤肿瘤起始细胞的存在及其潜在贡献，我们选择了三种假定的SC标志物（Lgr5、Lgr6和Sox9），并通过免疫组织化学和qRT-PCR研究了它们在43例犬毛囊（HF）和18例犬皮肤表皮肿瘤中的表达模式、蛋白质和mRNA表达水平，以正常皮肤样本作为对照。在表皮和HF肿瘤中未检测到Lgr5蛋白表达；然而，在一些HF肿瘤中mRNA过表达明显。Sox9在一些肿瘤病例中在蛋白质和mRNA水平均有表达。所测试的Lgr6抗体不适用于福尔马林固定石蜡包埋组织样本，但与正常皮肤相比，该基因在HF和表皮肿瘤的多个样本中表达较高。与基底细胞癌（BCC）相比，在毛母细胞瘤（TB）中发现三种SC标志物的mRNA表达水平显著更高。目前的结果表明犬HF和表皮肿瘤可能有共同的肿瘤起始细胞。所选三种SC标志物的mRNA表达，尤其是Lgr5，可能有助于区分犬TB和BCC。
