1990 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Biological Characteristics of Merkel Cell Carcinoma and the Standard for its Diagnosis.
| Project/Area Number |
63570483
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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 |
Dermatology
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| Research Institution | Nihon University |
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Principal Investigator |
SUZUKI Hiroyuki Nihon University School of Medicine, Department of Dermatology, Associate Professor, 医学部・皮膚科 (40059473)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1988 – 1990
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| Keywords | Merkel cell, / Merkelcell-neurite cemplexes, / Neuron-specific enolase (NSE), / Hair discs, / H^3-thymidine, / electronーmicroscopic immunostaining, / Human skin, / Ultrastructural localization. |
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| Research Abstract |
Merkel cell-neurite complexes are composed of Merkel cells and nerve terminals closely attached to them. Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) has been regarded as a reliable marker. Firstly, in order to study the biological aspects of Merkel cell, NSE was examined in Merkel cell-neurite complexes in normal and denervated skin of hair discs in mouse using light- and electron-microscopic immunostaining. It was confirmed eledtron- microscopically that NSE is not present in the Merkel cell itself, but within the associated nerve endings. These results suggest that NSE is not a marker for the Merkel cell, but for the axon terminal associated with such cells. Also these results cast doubt on the idea that NSE is a marker for Merkel cell.
Gu et al have indicated recently that NSE is a diagnostic marker for Merkel cell carcinoma. Secondly, localization of NSE was examined in human skin using electron-microscopic immunostaining, to clarify whether or not NSE is a marker for the Merkel cell carcinoma. A
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s a results, reaction products of NES were detected in the nerve terminals, but not in the associated Merkel cells. These results suggest that NSE is not a marker for the Merkel cell itself in human skin, but for the nerve endings attached to it. The discovery of NSE in the tumor cells of Merkel cell carcinoma is apparently at variance with the fact that none has been found within the Merkel cells in normal human skin. Further studies are requested in order to throw light on this contradiction.
Finally, the incorporation of H^3-thymidine into the nuclei of the basal cells was examined using autoradiography and the percentage of basal cells labeled was calculate, to clarify the proliferative activity of epidermal keratinocytes in hair discs during postnatal developmental stages. This percentage is higher in hair discs than in interfollicular epidermis throughout all stages examined. These results suggest that the degree of cell proliferation in the hair disc epidermis is different from that in the surrounding epidermis. Less
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Research Products
(8 results)
