Immunohistochemical investigation of thymidylate synthase in cervical cancer.
We prepared a polyclonal antibody against recombinant human thymidylate synthase (TS) to evaluate its use in immunohistochemical analysis. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of specimens of cervical tissue were prepared from 35 patients with cervical cancer. The TS immunoreactivity was studied by employing the peroxidase-labeled antibody method with our prepared antibody. At the same time, the TS activity was determined with the 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylate (FdUMP)-TS-binding assay in fresh-frozen specimens of these cervical cancers. We observed a positive correlation (r = 0.658) between the degree of TS immunoreactivity and the TS activity in the binding assay of 9 patients with grade 4 (strongly positive) TS immunoreactivity, while 7 patients (78%) exhibited a TS activity of 5 pmol/g tissue or greater. Nine patients with a TS immunoreactivity of grade 1 (negative to weakly positive) showed a TS activity <5 pmol/g tissue. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p < 0.01). TS expression was easily detected by the immunohistochemical technique which will allow the assessment of the relationship between TS activity and patient outcome.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi, Japan.
M
M
Suzuki
H
H
Okabe
S
S
Tsukagoshi
T
T
Kawai
M
M
Fukushima
I
I
Sato
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000906:Antibodies; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000201:enzymology; D005260:Female; D005468:Fluorodeoxyuridylate / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D013940:Thymidylate Synthase / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology
D000906:Antibodies; D005468:Fluorodeoxyuridylate; D013940:Thymidylate Synthase