The Human Hematopoietic Progenitor Cell Antigen (CD 3 4) in Vascular Neoplasia

Abstract

The human hematopoietic progenitor cell antigen CD34 is synthesized and expressed by early normal hematopoietic progenitor cells and by many acute leukemias. Anti-CD34 antibodies also have been reported to stain blood vessels in tissue sections, and, more recently, CD34 mRNA has been detected in vascular endothelial cells. Therefore, the authors studied the diagnostic utility of immunohistochemical CD34 antigen detection in tumors of endothelial cell derivation and compared the results with stains for von Willebrand (vW) factor. A wide variety of epithelial and mesenchymal neoplasms also were examined to assess the specificity of CD34 for vascular neoplasia. Seven cases of angiosarcoma (seven of seven), five cases of Kaposi's sarcoma (five of five), and eight cases of epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (eight of eight) were moderately to strongly positive for CD34. This reactivity was equally intense in frozen sections, alcohol-fixed tissue, and formalin-fixed specimens. In many cases, the malignant endothelial cells stained more strongly than adjacent benign endothelium. Moreover, in most cases CD34 positivity was quantitatively and qualitatively stronger than staining for vW factor. Two cases of hemangiopericytoma (two of two) were CD34 positive but stained less intensely than the angiosarcomas, Kaposi's sarcomas, or hemangioendotheliomas. Five of six cases of hemangioma also stained positively for CD34; the nonreactive tumor in this group was the only one among 28 vascular neoplasms studied that was not reactive for CD34. In comparison, 9 of the 28 vascular tumors did not stain for vW factor. Three hundred fifty-seven tumors of nonvascular derivation also were examined for CD34 antigen expression. Focal light staining was seen in one pulmonary squamous cell carcinoma; moderate to intense staining was observed in half of the epithelioid sarcomas studied (8 of 16) and in a minority of leiomyosarcomas (3 of 22). These findings indicate that CD34 is a sensitive and relatively specific marker for neoplasms of vascular origin.

Transcriptome-wide analysis of blood vessels laser captured from human skin and chronic wound-edge tissue

“…The gene for keratin 14, one of 10 known type I keratins, was found in low abundance in vessel elements as well as in cultured human microvascular endothelial cells (data not shown). This finding is consistent with the literature reporting keratin in endothelial cells (15). Abundance of this and another rare transcript secretoglobin (SCB2A2) was much lower in vessels from the wound site compared with that from intact human skin.…”

Intra-tumoural microvessel density in human solid tumours

“…The problem of antigen specificity is highlighted by the detection of CD34 antigen on lymphatic vessels, perivascular stromal cells as well as other stromal elements while this is compounded by the absence of FVIII-RA on part of the capillary endothelium in tumour tissue (Holthofer et al, 1982;Parums et al, 1990;Traweek et al, 1991;Miettinen et al, 1994). The disadvantages associated with staining for CD31 antigen include co-staining of inflammatory cells, but these can be distinguished from endothelial cells on the basis of morphological differences, and frequent antigen loss due to fixatives that contain acetic acid (Vermeulen et al, 1996).…”

Solitary fibrous tumor of the orbit, a poorly‐recognized orbital lesion

“…Solitary fibrous tumors have demonstrated strong CD34 immunoreactivity in 79%∂100% of cases (Westra et al 1994). It has also been noted in other tumors such as dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, smooth muscle tumors, neurofibroma and schwannoma (Traweek et al 1991;Cohen et al 1993).…”