title: The clinical implications of Crk-like adaptor protein expression in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma.
abstract: Papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PMC) is the most common subtype of thyroid carcinomas with satisfactory prognosis. Crk-like (CrkL) adaptor protein was identified in the development of many carcinomas. However, the clinical implications of CrkL protein in PMC were still unknown. Here, we conducted immunohistochemistry to test and analyze CrkL expression in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) (50 cases), PMC (50 cases), and nodular goiter (50 cases), and then western blot further identified the expression of CrkL proteins. In our present study, the positive rate and the mean optical density (MOD) value of CrkL expression in PTC and PMC tissues were statistically significantly different, compared with nodular goiter (p = 0.021, 0.037) and normal thyroid tissues (p = 0.003, 0.009), respectively. In addition, CrkL expression was not associated with age, gender, and tumor number. Conversely, significant differences between CrkL expression and metastasis (p < 0.01) and violation of capsule (p < 0.01) were observed. Notably, western blot indeed identified that the metastasis group of either PTC or PMC tissues had about twofold increased expression of CrkL compared with their non-metastasis groups (p < 0.05). In conclusion, CrkL is highly expressed in papillary thyroid carcinoma and papillary thyroid microcarcinoma and closely correlated to metastasis. Therefore, it is essential to carry out neck lymph node clearance in patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Xiangshan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Wenyuan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Ranran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Shaomei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhongfa
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D000077273:Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; C082869:CRKL protein; D009687:Nuclear Proteins