Skip to main content
PMC home page
The American Journal of Pathology logoLink to The American Journal of Pathology
. 1987 Apr;127(1):60–65.

Expression of ras oncogene p21 antigen in normal and proliferative thyroid tissues.

T L Johnson, R V Lloyd, A Thor
PMCID: PMC1899596  PMID: 3105323

Abstract

The ras oncogene p21 antigen (p21) has been identified in several epithelial malignancies, including breast, colon, bladder, and prostate. The pattern and intensity of immunoreactivity between normal and neoplastic tissues has been distinctly different. The authors examined thyroid lesions from 73 different cases by immunohistochemistry for the expression of p21 with a monoclonal antibody (RAP-5). Normal thyroid tissues (4) showed the least immunoreactivity, while papillary carcinomas (8), Hurthle cell carcinomas (10), and follicular carcinomas as (3) showed slightly more intense staining than Hurthle cell adenomas (12) or follicular adenomas (9). Anaplastic carcinomas (4) showed much less intense staining than most other carcinomas, while medullary thyroid carcinomas (5) showed only slight immunoreactivity. Inflammatory thyroid lesions associated with goiters, including Hashimoto's thyroiditis (6) and Graves' disease (8), showed moderate to intense expression of p21 as did multinodular goiters (4). Semiquantitative analysis of staining intensity by serial dilution of the primary antibody showed significant differences in staining between normal thyroid and some carcinomas (P less than 0.05), but not between carcinomas and adenomas. These results show that while antibody RAP-5 detects an antigen that is only weakly expressed in normal thyroids, this antigen is more strongly expressed in benign and malignant thyroid tumors, as well as in inflammatory and nonneoplastic proliferative thyroid lesions. It is thus not helpful in identifying differences between neoplastic and non-neoplastic thyroid lesions.

Full text

PDF
60

Images in this article

62Figure 1
on p.62
63Figure 2
on p.63
63Figure 3
on p.63
64Figure 4
on p.64

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bishop J. M. Cellular oncogenes and retroviruses. Annu Rev Biochem. 1983;52:301–354. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.52.070183.001505. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Feig L. A., Bast R. C., Jr, Knapp R. C., Cooper G. M. Somatic activation of rasK gene in a human ovarian carcinoma. Science. 1984 Feb 17;223(4637):698–701. doi: 10.1126/science.6695178. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Fisher E. R., Gregorio R., Shoemaker R., Horvat B., Hubay C. The derivation of so-called "giant-cell" and "spindle-cell" undifferentiated thyroidal neoplasms. Am J Clin Pathol. 1974 May;61(5):680–689. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/61.5.680. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Hand P. H., Thor A., Wunderlich D., Muraro R., Caruso A., Schlom J. Monoclonal antibodies of predefined specificity detect activated ras gene expression in human mammary and colon carcinomas. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Aug;81(16):5227–5231. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.16.5227. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Hazard J. B. The C cells (parafollicular cells) of the thyroid gland and medullary thyroid carcinoma. A review. Am J Pathol. 1977 Jul;88(1):213–250. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Land H., Parada L. F., Weinberg R. A. Cellular oncogenes and multistep carcinogenesis. Science. 1983 Nov 18;222(4625):771–778. doi: 10.1126/science.6356358. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Le Douarin N., Fontaine J., Le Lièvre C. New studies on the neural crest origin of the avian ultimobranchial glandular cells--interspecific combinations and cytochemical characterization of C cells based on the uptake of biogenic amine precursors. Histochemistry. 1974 Mar 13;38(4):297–305. doi: 10.1007/BF00496718. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Lloyd R. V., Johnson T. L., Blaivas M., Sisson J. C., Wilson B. S. Detection of HLA-DR antigens in paraffin-embedded thyroid epithelial cells with a monoclonal antibody. Am J Pathol. 1985 Jul;120(1):106–111. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Lloyd R. V., Wilson B. S. Specific endocrine tissue marker defined by a monoclonal antibody. Science. 1983 Nov 11;222(4624):628–630. doi: 10.1126/science.6635661. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Nishiyama R. H., Dunn E. L., Thompson N. W. Anaplastic spindle-cell and giant-cell tumors of the thyroid gland. Cancer. 1972 Jul;30(1):113–127. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(197207)30:1<113::aid-cncr2820300118>3.0.co;2-e. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Ohuchi N., Thor A., Page D. L., Hand P. H., Halter S. A., Schlom J. Expression of the 21,000 molecular weight ras protein in a spectrum of benign and malignant human mammary tissues. Cancer Res. 1986 May;46(5):2511–2519. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Reddy E. P. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the T24 human bladder carcinoma oncogene. Science. 1983 Jun 3;220(4601):1061–1063. doi: 10.1126/science.6844927. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Reddy E. P., Reynolds R. K., Santos E., Barbacid M. A point mutation is responsible for the acquisition of transforming properties by the T24 human bladder carcinoma oncogene. Nature. 1982 Nov 11;300(5888):149–152. doi: 10.1038/300149a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Santos E., Martin-Zanca D., Reddy E. P., Pierotti M. A., Della Porta G., Barbacid M. Malignant activation of a K-ras oncogene in lung carcinoma but not in normal tissue of the same patient. Science. 1984 Feb 17;223(4637):661–664. doi: 10.1126/science.6695174. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Slamon D. J., deKernion J. B., Verma I. M., Cline M. J. Expression of cellular oncogenes in human malignancies. Science. 1984 Apr 20;224(4646):256–262. doi: 10.1126/science.6538699. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Tanaka T., Slamon D. J., Battifora H., Cline M. J. Expression of p21 ras oncoproteins in human cancers. Cancer Res. 1986 Mar;46(3):1465–1470. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Thor A., Horan Hand P., Wunderlich D., Caruso A., Muraro R., Schlom J. Monoclonal antibodies define differential ras gene expression in malignant and benign colonic diseases. Nature. 1984 Oct 11;311(5986):562–565. doi: 10.1038/311562a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Viola M. V., Fromowitz F., Oravez S., Deb S., Finkel G., Lundy J., Hand P., Thor A., Schlom J. Expression of ras oncogene p21 in prostate cancer. N Engl J Med. 1986 Jan 16;314(3):133–137. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198601163140301. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Viola M. V., Fromowitz F., Oravez S., Deb S., Schlom J. ras Oncogene p21 expression is increased in premalignant lesions and high grade bladder carcinoma. J Exp Med. 1985 May 1;161(5):1213–1218. doi: 10.1084/jem.161.5.1213. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Weinberg R. A. Alteration of the genomes of tumor cells. Cancer. 1983 Jun 1;51(11):1971–1975. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19830601)51:11<1971::aid-cncr2820511102>3.0.co;2-v. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The American Journal of Pathology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Investigative Pathology

RESOURCES