Nestin expression in different tumours and its relevance to malignant grade.
BACKGROUND
Nestin, an intermediate filament (IF) protein, is expressed in proliferating progenitor cells of developmental and regenerating tissues, and is identified as a neuroepithelial precursor cell marker. Recently, nestin was detected in some neoplasms such as glioma, ependymoma, melanoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST), and testicular stromal tumour. Moreover, the expression intensity of nestin exhibited significant correlation with the malignant grade of glioma.


OBJECTIVE
To detect the expression of nestin in different tumours and to analyse the relationship between the expression of nestin and the malignant grade of the tumours.


METHODS
Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded surgical samples of neoplastic tissues were obtained from the Department of Pathology of Sun Yat-sen University. Histological analysis and immunohistochemical staining for nestin were performed. Histoscores were analysed by semi-quantitative evaluation.


RESULTS
Nestin was expressed predominantly in the cytoplasm of angiosarcoma, pancreatic adenocarcinoma and GIST samples, and some tumour cells expressed in the nucleus. There was a statistically significant difference between the histoscore of nestin in high malignant GIST (2.2366 (0.6920)) and that in low malignant GIST (1.3783 (0.4268)) (p = 0.003); and also between that in high malignant angiosarcoma (1.9188 (0.2069)) and that in low malignant angiosarcoma (0.6474 (0.3273)) (p = 0.000). Cavernous angioma did not express nestin. The histoscore of nestin in high malignant pancreatic adenocarcinoma (7/14) was 1.1767 (0.4676), and that in low malignant pancreatic adenocarcinoma (3/8) was 0.6577 (0.0056) (no significant difference, p = 0.112).


CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest that the expression of nestin may play an important role in the development of some neoplasms such as GIST and angiosarcoma.
Yang
X H
XH
Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, SunYat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Wu
Q L
QL
Yu
X B
XB
Xu
C X
CX
Ma
B F
BF
Zhang
X M
XM
Li
S N
SN
Lahn
B T
BT
Xiang
A P
AP
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D046152:Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006394:Hemangiosarcoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007381:Intermediate Filament Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D064231:Nestin; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D007381:Intermediate Filament Proteins; C577484:NES protein, human; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D064231:Nestin