Abstract
Purpose: Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a proliferative process of suspected viral aetiology associated with immune deficiency. In transplanted patients, lesions regress on discontinuation of immunosuppressive therapy. The purpose of this work was to analyse the expression of thep53 oncosuppressor gene product, a proliferation regulator overexpressed in both malignant and non-malignant conditions, with the aim of better qualifying KS proliferation characteristics.Methods: We analysedp53 expression in a group of transplanted, cyclosporin A-treated, KS patients by immunohistochemistry, utilizing the DO-7 (with and without the antigen retrieval pretreatment), and the PAb 240 monoclonal anti-p53 antibodies, the latter of which is able to detect a mutated epitope, and evaluating staining intensity and localization, whether cytoplasmic or nuclear.Results: Seventy five percent of KS lesions from transplanted patients presented both nuclear and cytoplasmic positive p53 immunostaining with DO-7 antibody, thus demonstrating a presumably functional inactivation; one case also presented immunoreactivity with the PAb 240 antibody.Conclusions: On the basis of the results obtained and in the presence of lesion regression upon immunosuppression withdrawal, it may be concluded that KS in transplanted patients can be considered a non-malignant proliferative process, and that the cytoplasmic expression ofp53 may stand for a functional inactivation pattern.
References
Chang Y, Cesarman E, Pessin MS, Lee F, Culpepper J, Knowles DM, Moore PS (1994) Identification of herpesvirus-like DNA sequences in AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma Science 266:1865–1869
Gannon JV, Greaves R, Iggo R, Lane DP (1990) Activating mutations in p53 produce a common conformational effect. A monoclonal antibody specific for the mutant form. EMBO J 9:1595–1602
Lambkin HA, Mothersill CM, Kelehan P (1994). Variations in immunohistochemical detection of p53 protein overexpression in cervical carcinomas with different antibodies and methods of detection. J. Pathol. 172(1), 13–18.
Lane DP, Benchimol S (1990) p53: oncogene or anti-oncogene? Genes Dev 4:1–8
Moll UM, Riou G, Levine AJ (1992) Two distinct mechanisms alter p53 in breast cancer: mutation and nuclear exclusion. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 89:7262–7266
Moll UM, La Quaglia M, Benard J, Riou G (1995) Wild-type p53 undergoes cytoplasmic sequestration in undifferentiated neuroblastomas but not in differentiated tumors. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 92:4407–4411
Scinicariello F, Dolon M, Nedelcu I, Tyring SK, Hilliard JK (1994) Occurrence of human papillomavirus and p53 gene mutations in Kaposi's sarcoma. Virology 203:153–158
Suzuki K, Ono T, Takahashi K (1992) Inhibition of DNA synthesis by TGF-β 1 coincides with inhibition of phosphorylation and cytoplasmic translocation of p53 protein. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 183:1175–1183
Takahashi K, Suzuki K (1994) DNA synthesis-associated nuclear exclusion of p53 in normal human breast epithelial cells in culture. Oncogene 9:183–188
Trattner A, Hodak E, David M, Sandbank M (1993) The appearance of Kaposi sarcoma during corticosteroid therapy. Cancer 72:1779–1783
Vojtesek B, Bontek J, Midgley CA, Lane DP (1992) An immunochemical analysis of human p53: new monoclonal antibodies and epitope mapping using recombinant p53. J Immunol Methods 151:237–244
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Work supported by a grant from CNR, Special Project ACRO
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Flamini, G., Magalini, S., Curigliano, G. et al. Immunohistochemical analysis of p53 protein in transplant recipients with Kaposi's sarcoma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 123, 240–242 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01240324
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01240324