title: Detecting cell-in-cell structures in human tumor samples by E-cadherin/CD68/CD45 triple staining.
abstract: Although Cell-in-cell structures (CICs) had been documented in human tumors for decades, it is unclear what types of CICs were formed largely due to low resolution of traditional way such as H&E staining. In this work, we employed immunofluorescent method to stain a panel of human tumor samples simultaneously with antibodies against E-cadherin for Epithelium, CD68 for Macrophage and CD45 for Leukocytes, which we termed as "EML method" based on the cells detected. Detail analysis revealed four types of CICs, with tumor cells or macrophage engulfing tumor cells or leukocytes respectively. Interestingly, tumor cells seem to be dominant over macrophage (93% vs 7%) as the engulfer cells in all CICs detected, whereas the overall amount of internalized tumor cells is comparable to that of internalized CD45+ leukocytes (57% vs 43%). The CICs profiles vary from tumor to tumor, which may indicate different malignant stages and/or inflammatory conditions. Given the potential impacts different types of CICs might have on tumor growth, we therefore recommend EML analysis of tumor samples to clarify the correlation of CICs subtypes with clinical prognosis in future researches.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Beijing Shijitan Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, P. R. China.|Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ang
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular and Endocrine Surgery, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Manna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiangkai
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ning
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Meifang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory for Aging and Geriatrics, Institute of Geriatrics, General Hospital of Chinese PLA, Beijing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yazhuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shichong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qiwei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhaolie
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Beijing Shijitan Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000235:genetics*; D015820:Cadherins; D057686:Cell-in-Cell Formation / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D015820:Cadherins
keywords: EML method; cell cannibalism; cell-in-cell structures; epithelium; macrophage