Immunohistochemical Expression of ABCB5 as a Potential Prognostic Factor in Uveal Melanoma

Abstract

Uveal melanoma represents the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults; it may arise in any part of the uveal tract, with choroid and ciliary bodies being the most frequent sites of disease. In the present paper we studied ABCB5 expression levels in patients affected by uveal melanoma, both with and without metastasis, in order to evaluate if ABCB5 is associated with a higher risk of metastatic disease and can be used as a poor prognostic factor in uveal melanoma. The target population consisted of 23 patients affected by uveal melanoma with metastasis and 32 without metastatic disease. A high expression of ABCB5 was seen in patients with metastasis (14/23, 60.9%), compared to that observed in patients without metastasis (13/32, 40.6%). In conclusion, we found that ABCB5 expression levels were correlated with faster metastatic progression and poorer prognosis, indicating their role as a prognostic factor in uveal melanoma.

Fatty acid‑binding protein 5 predicts poor prognosis in patients with uveal melanoma

“…Aberrant genetic and epigenetic regulation of key metabolic pathways is known to contribute towards the development and progression of UVM (28). Elevated expression of the protease A disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain 10 and the membrane transporter ATP binding cassette subfamily B member 5 was shown to be associated with rapid metastatic progression and worse prognosis in UVM, suggesting that these proteins may be useful as prognostic factors (29,30). As a major mediator of fatty acid uptake, transport and metabolism, FABP5 may participate in the development and aggressive behavior of cancer (7,12,31,32).…”

MacroH2A1 Immunoexpression in Breast Cancer

“…Non pathologic skin was used as a positive control, while we obtained a negative control omitting the primary antibody. The evaluation of both the intensity of the staining and the extent of positive cells was performed by light microscopy as previously reported (21,30,31). The intensity of staining (IS) was subclassified into four levels (0-3): absence of staining = 0, mild staining = 1, moderate staining = 2, and strong staining = 3.…”

The Macro-Autophagy-Related Protein Beclin-1 Immunohistochemical Expression Correlates With Tumor Cell Type and Clinical Behavior of Uveal Melanoma

“…Sections were treated for immunohistochemical analyses with standard methods ( 47 ), using the streptavidin/biotin-based system for immunoperoxidase; briefly, after appropriate deparaffinization and pre-treatments, sections were incubated for 30 min at 37°C with primary polyclonal rabbit anti-human antisera against Beclin-1 (working dilution 1:250; Abcam, Cambridge, MA, USA), p62 (working dilution 1:200; Abcam, Cambridge, MA, USA), ATG7 (working dilution 1:100; Abcam, San Francisco, CA, USA) and with primary monoclonal mouse anti-human antiserum against CD31 (JC70A; working dilution 1:40; DAKO, Glostrup, Denmark). The secondary biotinylated antibody was applied for 30 min at room temperature, followed by the streptavidin–biotin–peroxidase complex for a further 30 min at room temperature.…”

“…Negative controls were additionally used by omitting the primary antibody. Intensity of staining (IS) was scored on a scale of 0–3 ( 47 ), as follows: absence of staining = 0, weak staining = 1, moderate staining = 2, strong staining = 3. The percentage of immunopositive cells (Extent Score, ES) was graded by five groups ( 47 ): <5% (0); 5–30% (+); 31–50% (++); 51–75% (+++), and >75% (++++).…”

“…Counting was performed at 200× magnification. The intensity reactivity score (IRS) was obtained by multiplying IS and ES ( 47 ): IRS < 6 was interpreted as low expression (L-IRS), IRS > 6 as high expression (H-IRS).…”