pancreastatin and Cell-Transformation--Neoplastic

The role of enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cells in gastric carcinogenesis is not fully understood. Spontaneous tumours developing in hypergastrinemic female cotton rats have an adenocarcinoma phenotype, but numerous cells in the dysplastic mucosa as well as in the carcinomas are positive for neuroendocrine markers. In the present study of female cotton rats with 2 and 8 months' hypergastrinemia, the oxyntic mucosa of the stomach was examined histologically and immunolabelled for histidine decarboxylase (HDC) and pancreastatin, and hyperplastic and neoplastic ECL cells were evaluated by electron microscopy. These animals developed hyperplasia of the oxyntic mucosa in general and of the ECL cells in particular after 2 months and dysplasia and carcinomas after 8 months. The immunoreactivity of the ECL cells in the oxyntic mucosa was increased at 2 months and declined at 8 months. These histological changes were associated with progressive loss of secretory vesicles and granules in ECL cells. We suggest that ECL cells in hypergastrinemic cotton rats dedifferentiate with time and that the gastric carcinomas may develop from ECL cells.

Topics: Animals; Carcinoma; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Chromogranin A; Enterochromaffin-like Cells; Female; Gastrins; Histidine Decarboxylase; Hyperplasia; Pancreatic Hormones; Parietal Cells, Gastric; Rats; Sigmodontinae; Stomach Neoplasms

The aim of the present study was to examine the correlation between the immunohistochemical findings and the serum markers for neuroendocrine (NE) cells in patients with carcinoma of the prostate. Preoperative serum values of chromogranin A (CgA), chromogranin B (CgB), pancreastatin (Pst), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and prostatic specific antigen (PSA) were determined in 22 patients. The tissue specimens were obtained by a palliative transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) because of urinary outflow obstruction. Immunohistochemistry was performed by using antibodies against CgA, CgB, NSE,.serotonin, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and somatostatin. Tumor cells with NE differentiation were found in 91% of the cases. No patient had elevated serum values of NSE, despite the presence of NSE-positive tumor cells in 77% of the tumors. Neither did CgB in serum correlate with the immunohistochemical findings. Elevated serum values of CgA were found in 59% of patients. A positive correlation between the number of CgA-staining cells and the serum values of CgA was found, as seven out of eight patients with groups of CgA-positive tumor cells had elevated serum values of CgA. We conclude that CgA, in contrast to NSE, CgB, and Pst, seems to be a useful serum marker in predicting the extent of NE differentiation in prostatic tumors.

Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antigens, Neoplasm; Antigens, Surface; Biomarkers, Tumor; Carcinoma; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Chromogranin A; Chromogranins; Diagnosis, Differential; Glutamate Carboxypeptidase II; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; Pancreatic Hormones; Phosphopyruvate Hydratase; Prostate; Prostate-Specific Antigen; Prostatic Neoplasms; Serotonin; Somatostatin; Thyrotropin