Summary
An immunohistochemical study on ependymal tumours was performed in order to determine what relationships exist between histological subtypes and epithelial or glial characteristics. Thirty-eight ependymal tumours were examined with antibodies to cytokeratin (CK), epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), transthyretin (TTR) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) using the avidin-biotin-complex technique. They included 23 ependymomas, 13 anaplastic ependymomas, and 2 myxopapillary ependymomas. Only 3 of the 23 ependymomas were positive with EMA but 19 reacted with GFAP. None of them were positive with CK. Six of the 13 anaplastic ependymomas were positive with EMA, 3 with CK and 10 with GFAP. Five of the 6 anaplastic ependymomas which had epithelial marker proteins were either negative or weakly positive for GFAP. The present study demonstrates that most benign ependymomas exhibit GFAP positivity while the anaplastic ones tend to suppress their glial nature in favour of epithelial differrentiation. However, ependymal tumours showed few characteristics of choroid plexus cells; only one of the examined cases was positive for TTR.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aleshire SL, Bradley CA, Richardson LD, Parl FF (1983) Localization of human prealbumin in choroid plexus epithelium. J Histochem Cytochem 31:608–612
Cruz-Sanchez FF, Rossi ML, Esiri MM, Reading M (1988) Epithelial membrane antigen expression in ependymomas. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol 14:197–205
Doglioni C, Dell'orto P, Coggi G, Iuzzolino P, Bontempini L, Viale G (1987) Choroid plexus tumors. An immunohistochemical study with particular reference to the coexpression of intermediate filament proteins. Am J Pathol 127:519–529
Dohrmann GJ, Bucy PC (1970) Human choroid plexus: a light and electron microscopic study. J Neurosurg 33:506–516
Frierson HF Jr, Mills SE, Fechner RE, Taxy JB, Levine PA (1986) Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma. An aggressive neoplasm derived from schneiderian epithelium and distinct from olfactory neuroblastoma. Am J Surg Pathol 10:771–779
Hirano A, Ghatak NR, Zimmerman HM (1973) The fine structure of ependymoblastoma. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 32:144–152
Holden J, Dolman CL, Churg A (1987) Immunohistochemistry of meningiomas including the angioblastic type. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 46:50–56
Jacobsen M, Jacobsen GK, Clausen PP, Saunders NR, Mollgard K (1982) Intracellular plasma proteins in human fetal choroid plexus during development. II. The distribution of prealbumin, albumin, alpha-fetoprotein, transferrin, IgG, IgA, IgM, and alpha-1-antitrypsin. Dev Brain Res 3:251–262
Kasper M, Karsten U, Stosiek P (1986) Detection of cytokeratin(s) in epithelium of human Plexus choroideus by monoclonal antibodies. Acta Histochem (Jena) 78:101–103
Kitamoto T, Tateishi J, Hikita K, Nagara H, Takeshita I (1985) A new method to classify amyloid fibril proteins. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 67:272–278
Mannoji H, Becker LE (1988) Ependymal and choroid plexus tumors: cytokeratin and GFAP expression. Cancer 61:1377–1385
Mannoji H, Takeshita I, Fukui M, Ohta M, Kitamura K (1981) Glial fibrillary acidic protein in medulloblastoma. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 55:63–69
Matsushima T, Inoue T, Takeshita I, Fukui M, Iwaki T, Kitamoto T (1988) Choroid plexus papillomas: an immunohistochemical study with particular reference to the coexpression of prealbumin. Neurosurgery 23:384–389
Miettinen M, Lehto VP, Dahl D, Virtanen I (1983) Differential diagnosis of chordoma, chondroid, and ependymal tumors as aided by anti-intermediate filament antibodies. Am J Pathol 112:160–169
Miettinen M, Clark R, Virtanen I (1986) Intermediate filament proteins in choroid plexus and ependyma and their tumors. Am J Pathol 123:231–240
Mills SE, Wolfe JT III, Weiss MA, Swanson PE, Wick MR, Fowler JE, Young RH (1987) Small cell undiferentiated carcinoma of the urinary bladder. A light-microscopic, immunocytochemical, and ultrastructural study of 12 cases. Am J Surg Pathol 11:606–617
Moll R, Franke WW, Schiller DL, Geiger B, Krepler R (1982) The catalog of human cytokeratins: patterns of expression in normal epithelia, tumors and cultured cells. Cell 31:11–24
Pinkus GS, Kurtin PJ (1985) Epithelial membrane antigen — a diagnostic discriminant in surgical pathology. Immunohistochemical profile in epithelial, mesenchymal, and hematopoietic neoplasms using paraffin sections and monoclonal antibodies. Hum Pathol 16:929–940
Roessmann U, Velasco ME, Sindely SD, Gambetti P (1981) Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in ependymal cells during development. An immunohistochemical study. Brain Res 200:13–21
Rubinstein LJ, Brucher J-M (1981): Focal ependymal differentiation in choroid plexus papillomas. An immunohistochemical study. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 53:29–33
Schnitt SJ, Vogel H (1986) Meningiomas. Diagnostic value of immunoperoxidase staining for epithelial membrane antigen. Am J Surg Pathol 10:640–649
Seitz RJ, Wechsler W (1987) Immunohistochemical demonstration of serum proteins in human cerebral gliomas. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 73:145–152
Sloane JP, Ormerod MG (1981) Distribution of epithelial membrane antigen in normal and neoplastic tissues and its value in diagnostic tumor pathology. Cancer 47:1786–1795
Sloane JP, Hughes F, Ormerod MG (1983) An assessment of the value of epithelial membrane antigen and other epithelial markers in solving diagnostic problems in tumour histopathology. Histochem J 15:645–654
Stauder AJ, Dickson PW, Aldred AR, Schreiber G, Mendelsohn FAO, Hudson P (1986) Synthesis of transthyretin (pre-albumin) mRNA in choroid plexus epithelial cells, localized by in situ hybridization in rat brain. J Histochem Cytochem 34:949–952
Tajika Y, Kubo O, Himuro H, Inoue N, Tajika T, Toyama T, Sakairi M, Kitamura K (1988) Immunohistochemical study of ependymoma. Brain Tumor Pathol 5:13–18
Taratuto AL, Molina H, Monges J (1983) Choroid plexus tumors in infancy and childhood. Focal ependymal differentiation: an immunohistochemical study. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 59:304–308
Velasco ME, Dahl D, Roessmann U, Gambetti P (1980) Immunohistochemical localization of glial fibrillary acidic protein in human glial neoplasms. Cancer 45:484–494
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kaneko, Y., Takeshita, I., Matsushima, T. et al. Immunohistochemical study of ependymal neoplasms: histological subtypes and glial and epithelial characteristics. Vichows Archiv A Pathol Anat 417, 97–103 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02190526
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02190526