Immunocytochemical Demonstration of Neuron-Specific Enolase (NSE) in Human Lung Cancers

Abstract

An anti-serum against human neuron-specific enolase (NSE), raised in sheep, has been characterized and used for immunocytochemical localization of NSE in paraffin sections of normal tissues and lung cancers. Of the small cell carcinomas (SCC), 69 out of 99 (70%) cases stained with the anti-serum. Maltreated biopsies showed a lower frequency of positive staining (19/39), indicating the importance of well-preserved biopsies. There was no clear difference in the staining between the oat cell and intermediate cell type of SCC. A majority (14 out of 21) of the non-SCC:s (large cell, adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma) were also stained by the anti-serum. Generally, this staining was weak and it could be blocked by preabsorption of the anti-serum by purified NSE. It is concluded that NSE expression, in conjunction with traditional histology, serves as a useful but not exclusive marker for SCC.

Neuroendocrine differentiation and clinical behaviour in non-small cell lung tumours

“…Similar findings have been reported by others (Bergh et al, 1985;Said et al, 1985;Rode et al, 1985;Dhillon et al, 1985;Linnoila et al, 1988b;Graziano et al, 1989). The detection of CK-BB immunoreactivity in 67% of SCLC and 14% of squamous cell tumours compares well with previous radioimmunoassay data (Ruberry et al, 1983).…”

“…These include L-dopa decarboxylase (Baylin et al, 1980;Berger et al, 1981;Gazdar et al, 1988a), peptide hormones including calcitonin (Berger et al, 1981) and gastrin releasing peptide (Yamaguchi et al, 1985) and neurone specific enolase (NSE) (Bergh et al, 1985;Said et al, 1985;Rode et al, 1985;Dhillon et al, 1985;Linnoila et al, 1988b;Graziano et al, 1989). Although elevated levels of neuroendocrine (NE) markers have been detected in NSCLC tumours, the expression of more than one NE marker, though common in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) occurs much less frequently in NSCLC (Berger et al, 1981).…”

Neuron specific enolase expression in carcinoma of the lung

“…Our findings concur with those of previous workers (Bergh et al, 1985;Dhillon et al, 1985) and do not support the view that NSE immunostaining can be used as a diagnostic indicator for the SCLC phenotype (Springall et al, 1984). Furthermore, interpretation of histological sections stained for NSE immunoreactivity can be complicated by considerable intratumoral heterogeneity in the expression of the enzyme as evidenced by variability in cell immunostaining.…”

“…It follows that the neuroendocrine properties of SCLC including NSE immunoreactivity need not be restricted to this histology alone. In recent assessments of NSE immunoreactivity in SCLC and NSCLC biopsies, no evidence could be found for the specific localisation of NSE in SCLC and it was concluded from these studies that positive staining for neuroendocrine markers did not assist in distinguishing between SCLC and NSCLC biopsies (Dhillon et al, 1985;Bergh et al, 1985). Similarly NSE has been histochemically demonstrated in several types of CNS tumours and in nonneuroendocrine tumours including Schwannomas, carcinoma and fibroadenoma of the breast, renal cell carcinoma and chordoma (Vinores et al, 1984).…”

Estramustine binding protein and anti-proliferative effect of estramustine in human glioma cell lines

“…The cells were then analyzed for the presence of EMBP using the conventional indirect antibody-peroxidase technique. The techniques have been described in detail elsewhere (Sternberger, 1979;Bergh et al, 1985a).…”