Immunohistochemical Detection of Estrogen Receptors in Paraffin Sections of Human Thyroid Tissues

Abstract

The optiomal demonstration of estrogen receptor binding in thyroid tissues was made under conditions of 10% protease in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.6) for 10 min as the pretreatment digestion step, incubation of primary antibody (ER-ICA monoclonal kit; Abbott Laboratories) at 37 °C for 2 h and incubation of secondary antibody (ABC kit; Vector) at 37 °C for 40 min. Thyroid tissues used for assessing the reaction were 17 cases of goiter, 25 adenoma cases, 27 cases of papillary carcinoma, 14 cases of follicular carcinoma and 10 latent cancer cases. Incidences of positive estrogen receptor reaction were 22% (11/51) for all thyroid cancers, 20% (5/25) for the thyroid adenomas and 59% (10/17) for goiters. 15% (4/27) of papillary carcinomas, 21% (3/14) of follicular carcinomas and 40% (4/10) of latent cancers proved positive, the estrogen receptor reaction being limited to the nuclei of thyroid follicular/papillary type cells.

Immunohistochemical Analysis of Estrogen Receptors in 313 Paraffin Section Cases of Human Thyroid Tissue

“…Further more, ER antibody binding was demonstrated by 30.4% of follicular carcinomas but only 16.5% of papillary le sions and by none of the anaplastic carcinomas studied. The results are generally in line with earlier reports of ER in thyroid tissue studied biochemically [12][13][14][15] or immunohistochemically [15][16][17][18], For example, Takeichi et al [18] described ER immunoreactivity, located in the nuclei, in all of 6 welldifferentiated papillary cancers, 5 of them (83.3%) having 20 or more ER-immunoreactive (ER-IR) cells per lightmicroscope visual field ( x 100). Of the poorly differen tiated papillary cancer cases, 5 (83.3%) had 1-19 ER-IR cells per visual field.…”

“…This was followed by rinsing in Tris-buffer, incubation in diaminobenzidine for 2 min, washing in tap water and light counterstaining with hematoxylin. ER staining was seen in the nuclei as described in our previous report [16].…”

“…The method described in detail in our previous report [16] was applied for the detection o f ER in routinely prepared paraffin-embed ded sections fixed in 10% buffered neutral formalin. The WHO clas sification of thyroid lesions and the general rules for the description of thyroid cancer were used as the bases for the histological classifica tion of the tumors.…”

“…While it is clearly likely that sex hormones are somehow involved, the mechanisms remain unclear. The few papers which have described the existence of estrogen receptors (ER) in thyroid tissue using biochemical [11][12][13][14][15] or radioim munochemical [15][16][17][18] analyses also have not provided clear evidence. In our previous report [ 16], we documented reliable detection of ER in paraffin sections by an immuno histochemical method.…”

Immunohistochemical Evaluation of Estrogen Receptor Status in Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy and in Prostate Carcinoma and the Relationship to Efficacy of Endocrine Therapy

“…4], Conventional bio chemical methods have been able to infer the presence or absence of both androgen or estrogen receptors in prostat ic disease, but the exact localization and level of receptor positive cells within differing tissues has been impossible to determine [5][6][7], With the recent development of commer cially available monoclonal antibodies against estrogen receptors (ER), it has been shown that a considerable number of ER-positive cells are to be found among the periglandular fibrocytes, in smooth muscle, and in hyper plastic basal epithelium but not in secretory epithelial [8][9][10]. This may be a phenomenon related to tissue and cellular specificity of binding and technical methods; we have been able to demonstrate optimal binding of anti body to F.R in paraffin-embedded sections of human thy roid [ 11 ]. In the present study, we have evaluated and com pared the ER receptor levels in human tissues from cases of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and prostate car cinomas, including 15 samples ofcarcinoma from patients undergoing endocrine therapy.…”