Moll R, Laufer J, Wu X R, Sun T T
Institut für Pathologie der Universität Mainz.
Verh Dtsch Ges Pathol. 1993;77:260-5.
We have investigated, by immunohistochemical staining of various paraffin-embedded carcinoma sections, the tissue-specific expression of uroplakin III--a recently characterized constituent glycoprotein (47 kD) of the asymmetrical unit membrane which forms plaques on apical surface of urothelial umbrella cells. The apical membrane pattern of normal urothelial umbrella cells was in part maintained in papillary transitional cell carcinomas (TCCs). In addition, in both papillary and invasive TCCs, variously sized lumina exhibited positive membrane staining of uroplakin III. In some cases, basal cell membrane staining was seen. Positive reactions (which sometimes were very focal) were noted in 16/18 papillary non-invasive TCCs (89%), 21/37 invasive TCCs (57%) and 12/15 TCC metastases (80%). Non-TCC carcinomas of different origin (n = 63) were consistently negative. These results show that uroplakin III may serve as a useful marker for TCCs, revealing specific urothelial differentiation features to be expressed in such tumors even after metastasis. This marker, while of only intermediate sensitivity, is highly specific, thus opening interesting histodiagnostic possibilities in the case of unclear carcinoma metastases.
我们通过对各种石蜡包埋的癌组织切片进行免疫组织化学染色，研究了尿路上皮蛋白III的组织特异性表达。尿路上皮蛋白III是一种最近鉴定出的不对称单位膜组成糖蛋白（47kD），在尿路上皮伞细胞的顶端表面形成斑块。正常尿路上皮伞细胞的顶端膜模式在乳头状移行细胞癌（TCC）中部分得以保留。此外，在乳头状和浸润性TCC中，大小各异的管腔均显示尿路上皮蛋白III的膜阳性染色。在某些病例中，可见基底细胞膜染色。在16/18例乳头状非浸润性TCC（89%）、21/37例浸润性TCC（57%）和12/15例TCC转移灶（80%）中观察到阳性反应（有时非常局限）。不同起源的非TCC癌（n = 63）始终为阴性。这些结果表明，尿路上皮蛋白III可能作为TCC的有用标志物，揭示即使在转移后此类肿瘤中仍表达的特定尿路上皮分化特征。该标志物虽然敏感性仅为中等，但具有高度特异性，因此在癌转移情况不明时开辟了有趣的组织诊断可能性。
