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.
Suzuki
M
M
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi, Japan.
Okabe
H
H
Tsukagoshi
S
S
Kawai
T
T
Fukushima
M
M
Sato
I
I
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