Fig. 1.
IKKα is down-regulated and delocalized in SCC arising from stratified epithelia. (A) Anti-IKKα staining intensity was quantified in 3 microscopic fields for each tissue section analyzed (245 SCCs and 39 controls) by ImageJ software (National Institutes of Health). Mean staining intensity of normal tissue was set as 100%, and the number of samples for each SCC group is indicated. Error bars represent 1 standard deviation (Left). Mean staining intensity of IKKα-positive nuclei was calculated from tissue arrays and SCC samples with adjacent normal skin stained with anti-IKKα using ImageJ software after setting the mean cytoplasmic staining intensity as background. Error bars represent 1 standard deviation (Right). Asterisk (*) represents statistical significance (P < 0,05) with respect to normal tissue as determined by χ2 test. (B) A series of 245 tumors and 39 normal tissue samples was subjected to IHC with IKKα-specific antibody. The panels shown here are representative of IKKα staining in normal skin (a), and poorly differentiated, invasive SCC from skin, esophagus, and lung (b, c, and d, respectively). IKKα nuclear staining is strongly reduced in tumors vs. normal epithelium (compare nuclei indicated by arrowheads in a with those in b, c, and d). (Magnification: 40×.) (C) A biopsy from skin SCC with adjacent normal skin was subjected to anti-IKKα IHC; a–d are different regions of the same section, representative of normal skin (a), hyperplastic skin/actinic keratosis (b), in situ SCC (c), and invasive SCC (d). (Magnification: 40×.)