[Differentiation capabilities of human germ cell tumors].
It is well known that human germ cell tumors are an excellent model to study not only differentiation capacity of tumor cells but also human normal somatic cell differentiation. A variety of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies were developed against cell surface antigens of murine embryos and teratocarcinomas. Accumulated data has revealed that these antigens are sequentially expressed on embryonic cells in a well-programmed manner. They have also been shown to be useful markers to investigate somatic cell differentiation in fetal and adult tissue. In humans, however, little is known about the cellular differentiation mechanism in early embryos and whether they could be studied, i.e. whether they occur in human germ cell tumors. In present review, we discussed newly established monoclonal antibodies which were raised from human embryonal carcinoma cells. We have been studying differentiation capacity of human germ cell tumor cells by using these antibodies. Some of these antibodies clearly indicates their usefulness to specify the developmental stage of normal tissue.
Hata
J
J
Department of Pathology, National Children's Medical Research Center.
Fujimoto
J
J
Ishii
E
E
Tanaka
S
S
Matsubayashi
Y
Y
Hara
S
S
Fujita
H
H
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000954:Antigens, Surface