Nestin expression in different tumors and its relevance to malignant grade

Abstract

Background: Nestin, an intermediate filament (IF) protein, is expressed in proliferating progenitor cells of developmental and regenerating tissues, and is identified as a neuroepithelial precursor cell marker. Recently, nestin was detected in some neoplasms such as glioma, ependymoma, melanoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), and testicular stromal tumor. Moreover, the expression intensity of nestin exhibited significant correlation with the malignant grade of glioma. Aims: To detect the nestin expression in different tumors and to analyze the relationship between the expression of nestin and the malignant grade of the tumors. Methods: Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded surgical samples of neoplastic tissues were obtained from the Department of Pathology of Sun Yat-sen University. Histological analysis and immunohistochemical staining for nestin were performed. Histoscores were analyzed by semi-quantitative evaluation. Results: Nestin was expressed predominantly in the cytoplasm of angiosarcoma, pancreatic adenocarcinoma and GIST samples, and some tumor cells expressed in the nucleus. Moreover, statistically significant difference (P=0.003) was observed between the histoscore of nestin in high malignant GIST (2.2366 ± 0.6920) and that in low malignant GIST (1.3783 ± 0.4268). Statistically significant difference (P=0.000) was observed between the histoscore of nestin in high malignant angiosarcoma (1.9188 ± 0.2069) and that in low malignant angiosarcoma (0.6474 ± 0.3273). Cavernous angioma did not express nestin. The histoscore of nestin in high malignant pancreatic adenocarcinoma (7/14) was 1.1767 ± 0.4676, and that in low malignant pancreatic adenocarcinoma (3/8) was 0.6577 ± 0.0056. There were no statistical difference (P=0.112). Conclusions: The findings suggest that the expression of nestin may play an important role in the development of some neoplasms such as GIST and angiosarcoma.