Keratin and Tissue Polypeptide Antigen Profiles of the Cervical Mucosa

Maternal and Cord Serum Levels of Tissue Polypeptide Antigen (TPA) in Normal Pregnancies

“…What does TPA signify? According to recent findings TPA is regarded as a cytoskeleton protein [4,5], Ele vated levels might therefore signal cell deteri oration. In pregnancy this would presumably mean a cell damage in the placenta.…”

“…It is presently believed to be a cytoskeleton protein [4]. As such it has been used in immunomorphological definition of epithelial compartments of the cervical mucosa [5]. TPA occurs in many tumors, in secretions, in amniotic fluid and in homogenized placental tissue [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], It occurred to us that measurement of TPA in maternal serum might indicate placental function and thus well-being.…”

Cytokeratin expression in squamous metaplasia of the human uterine cervix

“…The major tool used for studying the nature of the metaplastic process was the immunocytochemical and biochemical identification of the cytokeratin polypeptides expressed by normal cells of the cervix and their metaplastic derivatives. As pointed out in the Introduction, the expression of cytokeratins in different epithelia has proved to be a most useful marker both of the histogenetic origin of cells as well as of their state of differentiation [47, 501. In previous studies carried out in several laboratories, the various cytokeratins expressed in normal and pathological specimens of the human female genital tract have been identified [lo, 30,35,391. In accordance with the present findings, these studies have indicated the widespread occurrence of the 40-kilodalton cytokeratin (no.…”

Subtyping of epithelial cells of normal and metaplastic human uterine cervix, using polypeptide-specific cytokeratin antibodies

“…Using a battery of cytokeratin-specific monoclonal antibodies we have shown that the labelling pattern of the metaplastic tissue was different from that expressed in any of the normal cellular constituents of the cervix [21]. Several questions have, however, remained open, in particular those concerning the complete cytokeratin profile of the endocervical reserve cells, from which the metaplasia is believed to develop [8,10,26,39]. We have proposed that cervical squamous metaplasia represents a distinct route of differentiation in endocervical reserve cells, which normally apparently differentiate into the various types of columnar cell present in the endocervix.…”

“…Antibodies reactive with the subunits of intermediate filaments have been extensively used over the last several years for tumor diagnosis, helping to distinguish between poorly differentiated neoplasms of mesenchymal, epithelial, myogenic, neuronal or astrocytic origins [II, 16,24,28,31,35,361. More recently, with the introduction of specific antibodies reactive with subsets of cytokeratin polypeptides, it became possible to distinguish between epithelial tumors of different cellular origins as well as between those displaying distinct degrees of differentiation [3,13,22,26,30,37,40,431. Of particular interest in those studies was the obser-* To whom offprint requests should be sent vation that as tumors develop, changes may occur in the pattern of cytokeratin polypeptides they express [25].…”