Elsevier

Human Pathology

Volume 32, Issue 11, November 2001, Pages 1216-1224
Human Pathology

Original Contributions
The expression of E-cadherin and catenins in sporadic colorectal carcinoma*,**

https://doi.org/10.1053/hupa.2001.28948Get rights and content

Abstract

The E-cadherin/catenin complex plays a major role in epithelial cell–cell adhesion. Immunohistochemical studies have highlighted perturbation in the expression and distribution of E-cadherin and catenins in sporadic colorectal neoplasms. In this study, we compared the expression of E-cadherin and catenins (α-, β-, and γ-catenin) in 30 sporadic colorectal carcinomas with that in the adjacent nonneoplastic mucosa and assessed whether any perturbation in the level of expression occurred at the messenger RNA (mRNA) or protein level. We also compared the expression of E-cadherin and catenins in 13 lymph node deposits and the primary tumors. Immunohistochemistry was used to study the level of expression and cellular distribution of E-cadherin and catenins. Levels of mRNA were studied by in situ hybridization. E-cadherin and catenin immunoreactivity was increased with cytoplasmic accumulation in more than 85% of the neoplasms. There were marked increases in the levels of mRNA in the carcinomas compared with the nonneoplastic mucosa. Nuclear localization of β-catenin was higher at the invasive margin of some tumors, but expression of E-cadherin and catenin transcripts in the lymph node deposits showed no consistent relationship to that in the primary tumors. HUM PATHOL 32:1216-1224. Copyright © 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company

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.

. Immunoexpression of E-cadherin and catenins in 30 colorectal carcinomas compared with normal mucosa

Empty CellMembraneCytoplasmNucleus
ProteinNormalDecreasedNormalIncreasedEmpty 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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    *

    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.

    **

    Address correspondence and reprint requests to Malcolm R. Alison, DSc, Histopathology Department, Hammersmith Hospital, London, W12 ONN, England.

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