title: Stage-Specific Embryonic Antigen-1 (SSEA-1) Expression in Thyroid Tissues.
abstract: Stage-specific embryonic antigen-1 (SSEA-1), also known as CD15, is a member of a cluster of differentiation antigens that have been identified in various normal tissues and in different types of cancers including papillary and medullary thyroid carcinoma. SSEA-1 may be expressed in normal stem cells and cancer stem-like cells. To evaluate the potential diagnostic and prognostic utility of SSEA-1 in thyroid tumors, we analyzed the expression of SSEA-1 in normal and neoplastic thyroid tissues by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using a tissue microarray with 158 different tissue cores. To evaluate the potential utility of SSEA-1 as a surface marker, we also assessed the expression of SSEA-1 in thyroid cell lines by flow cytometric analysis. SSEA-1 immunoreactivity was identified in malignant thyroid follicular epithelial cancers but not in the benign thyroid tissues. Anaplastic thyroid (ATC) (80 %) and conventional papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) (60.7 %) showed significantly higher percentage of cases that were SSEA-1 immunoreactive than follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (FVPTC) (20.6 %) and follicular carcinoma (FCA) (32.1 %). Flow cytometric analysis of cultured thyroid cell lines showed that a small subpopulation of ATC and PTC thyroid tumor cells had SSEA-1 immunoreactivity which may represent thyroid cancer stem-like cells. The ATC cells expressed more SSEA-1 immunoreactive cells than the PTC cell lines. Our findings suggest that expression of SSEA-1 immunoreactivity in thyroid neoplasms was associated with more aggressive thyroid carcinomas. SSEA-1 is a marker that detects malignant thyroid neoplasms in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded thyroid tissue sections and may be a useful marker for thyroid cancer stem-like cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, 53792, USA.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, 53792, USA.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hardin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, 53792, USA.
authors.forename: Ranran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, 53792, USA.
authors.forename: Kaitlin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sundling
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, 53792, USA.
authors.forename: Darya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Buehler
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, 53792, USA. rvlloyd@wisc.edu.
authors.forename: Ricardo V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Lloyd
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005647:Fucosyltransferases / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D016256:Lewis X Antigen / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016256:Lewis X Antigen; C066693:FUT4 protein, human; D005647:Fucosyltransferases
keywords: CD15; Flow cytometry; SSEA-1; Thyroid carcinoma