Immunohistochemical analysis for histopathological subtypes in pediatric medulloblastomas

Abstract

Medulloblastomas occurring in children represent a histological spectrum of varying anaplasia and nodularity. In order to determine whether immunohistochemical markers might be useful parameters in subclassifying these tumors, 17 pediatric medulloblastomas, including nine diffuse/non-anaplastic, four diffuse/anaplastic, three nodular/non-anaplastic and one nodular/anaplastic subtypes, were studied. In the present report, we investigate the expression of neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM), nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR), neurofilament (NF), synaptophysin (SYN), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), S100, Bcl-2, and Ki-67 by using the immunohistochemistry against specific antibodies. This study showed that NGFR, NF, GFAP and S100 were not detected in anaplastic subtypes of medulloblastomas (0/5), while non-anaplastic subtypes were mainly expressed within the nodules. All 17 tumors were reactive for NCAM, SYN and Bcl-2. In addition, Ki-67 labeling indices for anaplastic subtypes (39.0 +/- 7.42%) were significantly higher than that of non-anaplastic medulloblastomas (11.4 +/- 8.04%; P < 0.0001). These results suggest that immunohistochemical markers are a useful adjunct in characterizing subtypes of pediatric medulloblastomas.

Medulloblastoma Simulating Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Case Report With a Review of “Myeloid Antigen” Expression in Nonhematopoietic Tissues and Tumors

“…19,20 Medulloblastoma has not been evaluated for CD56 by flow cytometry to our knowledge, but would be expected to express this antigen given its neuroectodermal origin and positive staining by immunohistochemistry. 21 In our case of medulloblastoma, a cocktail of CD16 and CD56 was very strongly positive by flow cytometry, and uniform, 3+ staining was noted by immunohistochemistry for CD56. Generally, CD56 positivity is quite strong in tumors of neuroectodermal or neuroendocrine origin, and often of higher intensity than that noted in myeloid leukemias or natural killer cells, a feature that may be useful in distinguishing metastatic tumors from hematopoietic cells.…”

Epigenetic silencing of miRNA-9 is associated with HES1 oncogenic activity and poor prognosis of medulloblastoma

“…Thus miR-9 restoration may reduce MB cell growth by stalling the cells in G1/S phase and preventing cell cycle progression via HES1 inhibition and p21 induction. miR-9 -mediated inhibition of HES1 also promoted the expression of distinct neuronal differentiation markers, including early neural differentiation marker TUBB3, neural-progenitor marker Nestin, and astrocytic differentiation marker GFAP, which has been associated with less aggressive MBs and higher sensitivity to anticancer drugs (Sadatomo et al , 1996; Son et al , 2003). Indeed, our results show that miR-9 is downregulated in poorly differentiated MB cells, whereas it is normally expressed in normal fetal cerebellum from which MB tumours arise.…”

Myogenic and melanotic differentiated medulloblastoma: case report

“…The 5-year survival rate in medulloblastoma is between 80% and 85%. Although there are reports stating the prognosis of nodular medulloblastomas is more favorable, the prognostic reliability for histological subtypes is controversial (17).…”