title: Minichromosome maintenance protein 3 is a candidate proliferation marker in papillary thyroid carcinoma.
abstract: The proliferative capacity of tumor cells is a characteristic feature in the whole growing tumors. Many pathologists and clinicians have used the estimation of cell proliferation for prognostic information. Minichromosome maintenance protein 3 (MCM3) is known to have a role on the initiation and regulation of DNA replication during cell cycle. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential applicability of one of the MCM proteins, MCM3, as a proliferation marker in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) with correlation to clinicopathological parameters. We performed the immunohistochemical analysis for MCM3 and Ki-67 in 60 cases of PTC and Western blot analysis for MCM3 expression in 6 PTCs and normal thyroid tissues. The comparison of MCM3 labeling index (LI) to tumor size (P=0.031) and extrathyroidal extension (P=0.037) was statistically significant while that of Ki-67 LI to them was not. Moreover, a significant association was not observed between MCM3 and Ki-67, but the MCM3 LI was considerably higher. Western blot analyses revealed that the MCM3 protein expression levels were overexpressed in all PTCs. On the contrary, the levels of MCM3 were very low or absent in all normal thyroid tissues. Our results indicate that MCM3 may be a more reliable proliferation marker than Ki-67 in accessing the growth of tumor and evaluating tumor aggressiveness of PTC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hospital Pathology, Research Institute of Medical Science, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Youn Soo
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Seon-Ah
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Hae Joo
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Seung Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Hyun Kee
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sanghee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Chang Suk
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Kyo Young
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Oak Kee
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Seung-Hwan
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hyuk-Sang
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.forename: Bong-Yun
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Cha
authors.forename: Jin Woo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D018265:Carcinoma, Papillary, Follicular / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064126:Minichromosome Maintenance Complex Component 3; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; C066470:MCM3 protein, human; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D064126:Minichromosome Maintenance Complex Component 3