title: Assessment of proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression in dysplastic intestinal type Barrett's esophagus. Gruppo Operativo per lo Studio delle Precancerosi Esofagee.
abstract: In the management of patients with Barrett's Esophagus (BE) the definition of a sub-group of patients at high risk for malignant transformation of the metaplastic epithelium is important. Undoubtedly, the histological evaluation of dysplasia is the most important and objective parameter to identify a malignant transformation of BE. In order to obtain additional data a group of cell proliferation markers was applied in dysplastic lesions. We studied PCNA in a selected group of patients with BE. One hundred six biopsies were examined, referring to fifty five patients with BE, who were followed up for a period of at least one year (1-5 years). All patients showed one or more biopsies positive for dysplasia. PCNA was detected immunohistochemically on formalin fixed and paraffin embedded biopsies, and positive cells were evaluated in a crude percent count. Our results showed a remarkable number of PCNA positive cells in high grade dysplasia and a variable amount of PCNA positive cells in the others groups. In addition, there was an overlap in the number of positive cases between low grade dysplasia (30%), indefinite (33%) and negative (34%). Therefore, the assessment of S-phase cells correlated with the degree of dysplasia seems to be of limited practical use. Cell proliferation is probably affected by many factors and mainly inflammation.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Anatomia ed Istologia Patologica, Università di Genova.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lapertosa
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baracchini
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fulcheri
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000453:epidemiology; D001471:Barrett Esophagus / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002455:Cell Division; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D015995:Prevalence; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen / Q000032:analysis*; D012306:Risk
chemical_list: D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen