title: Decreased immunoreactive maspin expression in intermediate thickness and thick primary melanoma lesions.
abstract: Maspin is a member of the serpin family of protease inhibitors. It is a 42 kDa cytoplasmic protein that is reported to have tumour suppressor activity. The loss of maspin gene expression is correlated with increased invasiveness and the risk of metastases in breast cancer. We studied maspin expression in primary melanoma lesions obtained from 76 patients. Immunostaining of 5 pm sections for maspin expression was obtained using the citrate antigen retrieval method. The extent of immunostaining was scored by recording the proportion of immunoreactive cells and the intensity of immunostaining. Our results demonstrated that maspin expression was down-regulated in intermediate thickness and thick melanoma lesions compared with thin lesions. These results suggest that loss of maspin expression might play a role in melanoma progression, invasion and metastatic dissemination. Further studies are needed to clarify the clinicopathological significance of maspin expression in melanoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Erasme University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium. vereecken.pierre@belgacom.net
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vereecken
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reynaert
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lalmand
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zouaoui-Boudjeltia
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heenen
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Van Den Heule
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petein
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018450:Disease Progression; D015536:Down-Regulation; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015843:Serpins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: C085344:SERPIN-B5; D015843:Serpins