Metallothionein expression and nuclear size in benign, borderline, and malignant serous ovarian tumours

Abstract

Metallothioneins (MTs) are low‐molecular‐weight proteins involved in metalloregulatory functions such as cell proliferation, growth, and differentiation. In recent years, MT expression has been linked with carcinogenesis, resistance to cancer therapy, and tumour progression. However, the significance of MT expression in ovarian cancers is at present inadequately documented. In this study, MT immunohistochemistry was performed in 12 benign, 14 borderline, and eight malignant serous tumours of the ovary. The intensity of the immunostaining was evaluated by image analysis. There was a significantly higher number of MT‐immunopositive cells in the multilayered epithelial cells of borderline serous tumours (atypical proliferative serous tumours) than in the single layered epithelial cells within the same tumour, and in the single cell layer of benign serous tumours. There was no difference in the expression of MTs in the single layered tumour cells of benign and borderline serous tumours. Significantly higher numbers of MT‐immunopositive cells were observed in both the single and the multilayered epithelial cells of serous carcinomas, the highest number being observed in the multiple layers of serous carcinomas. The positively stained malignant tumour cells in both single and multiple layers were larger than the negatively stained cells in benign, borderline, and malignant serous ovarian tumours. There was moderate to intense staining. These findings indicate that there is increased expression of MTs in the progression of malignancy, which could be used as a marker in grading the three groups of ovarian serous tumours and for determining prognosis. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Immunohistochemical localization of metallothionein in benign and malignant epithelial ovarian tumors

“…In this study MT expression was found to be much more common in malignant than benign ovarian neoplasms of surface epithelial origin. This is in keeping with the findings in two previous studies investigating MT expression in benign, borderline, and malignant serous and mucinous ovarian neoplasms (21,22) . This suggests that increased MT expression accompanies malignant transformation in ovarian surface epithelial neoplasms.…”

The repertoire of serous ovarian cancer non-genetic heterogeneity revealed by single-cell sequencing of normal fallopian tube epithelial cells

“…Our results revealed the co-existence of at least two populations of cancer cells, a pan-cytokeratin high, SPARC negative population and a pan-cytokeratin low and SPARC positive population within the same tumor ( Figures 5F, S5B and Supplementary Video). In addition, pan-cytokeratin negative and SPARC high cancer cells could also be identified by their abnormal nuclei ( Figures 5G and S5C), which were distinct from the SPARC high fibroblasts cells (Tan et al, 1999). Similarly, this SPARC positive, pan-cytokeratin negative and mesenchymal-like subpopulation was observed in the KURAMOCHI cell line, which is known to faithfully represent HGSOC (Domcke et al, 2013).…”

Metallothionein isoform II expression in hyperplastic, dysplastic and neoplastic prostatic lesions

“…In recent years, metallothionein expression has been linked with carcinogenesis, resistance to cancer treatment and tumour progression. [5][6][7] Immunohistochemically detected metallothionein is not usually found in normal tissues, except in myoepithelial cells of the breast and epithelial cells of the kidney and thyroid. 4 Overexpression of metallothionein occurs frequently in human malignant tumours, but the underlying mechanism is unknown.…”