Original ContributionsThe expression of E-cadherin and catenins in sporadic colorectal carcinoma*,**
Section snippets
Human tissue
Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue from 30 patients with sporadic colorectal tumors was obtained from the archived material at the Department of Histopathology, Hammersmith Hospital, London, England. The material included 30 primary adenocarcinomas (13 cases with lymph node deposits). The patients were 20 men whose ages ranged from 54 to 86 years with a median age of 69 years, and 10 women whose ages ranged from 44 to 79 years with a median age of 62 years. The adenocarcinomas were graded
Expression of E-cadherin and catenins in histologically normal colorectal epithelium
Membranous staining for E-cadherin and α-, β-, and γ-catenin was seen at the intercellular borders of the histologically normal colorectal epithelium. There was also weak cytoplasmic staining for the 4 proteins.
Expression of E-cadherin and the catenins in colorectal carcinomas and their metastatic deposits
Table 1 summarizes the immunoexpression of E-cadherin and catenins in the 30 carcinomas compared with the nonneoplastic mucosa.Empty Cell Membrane Cytoplasm Nucleus Protein Normal Decreased Normal Increased Empty Cell
Discussion
Several immunohistochemical studies have compared the expression of E-cadherin8, 16, 19 and catenins27, 28 in colorectal neoplasms with those in the normal adjacent colorectal mucosa. Most show an overall decrease in the expression of E-cadherin, which was inversely proportional to the degree of tumor differentiation. In carcinomas, a reciprocal redistribution of E-cadherin from the plasma membrane to the cytoplasm occurs.19 For the catenins, overall decreased expression has commonly been
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the United Kingdom Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre for kindly providing the IMAGE Consortium clones used for riboprobe preparation.
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Cited by (0)
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Supported in part by a Locally Organized Clinical Research Scheme grant from the Hammersmith Hospital NHS Trust and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Mona A. El-Bahrawy is supported by a scholarship from the Egyptian government.
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Address correspondence and reprint requests to Malcolm R. Alison, DSc, Histopathology Department, Hammersmith Hospital, London, W12 ONN, England.