| Project/Area Number |
01570182
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Human pathology
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| Research Institution | National Cancer Center Research Institute |
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Principal Investigator |
MUKAI Kiyoshi National Cancer Center Research Institute, Pathology Division, Section Head, 病理部, 室長 (20190837)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1989 – 1990
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 1990)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000)
Fiscal Year 1990: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Fiscal Year 1989: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
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| Keywords | Intermediate filaments / Epithelial marker / Mesenchymal marker / Immunohistochemistry |
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| Research Abstract |
Intermediate filaments have been used as an immunohistochemical tissue specific marker for epithelial, non-epithelial, muscle and neuronal cells, etc. Among them, keratin has been used extensively as a marker of epithelial cells. It is now known that keratin consists of at least 19 subclasses of different molecular weights. Many antibodies against keratin are now available for immunohistochemistry from various commercial sources ; however, most immunohistochemical studies of keratin have ignored the diversity of keratin itself as well as that of the antibodies against it. In addition, no systematic study has been taken place to evaluate the effects of fixation on the immunoreactivity of keratin in tissue sections. In this study, 28 different antibodies against keratin were used to assess the effects of fixation on immunoreactivity of keratin. The results indicated that immunoreactivity of keratin in formalin-fixed tissue was greatly reduced in general when compared with that in acetone-fixed tissue, which is known to preserves the immunoreactivity of filamentous proteins much better than formalin-fixed tissue. Treatment of tissue sections with proteolytic enzymes enhanced the immunoreactivity of keratin with some antibodies but the results were often variable and not reliable. For application of immunohistochemistry of intermediate filaments to diagnostic histopathology, endocrine tumors of the digestive tract were studied. It becomes obvious that coexpression of two or more intermediate filaments is a rather common phenomenon. This raises a serious question as to the specificity of intermediate filaments as a tissue specific marker.
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