Elsevier

Modern Pathology

Volume 20, Issue 9, September 2007, Pages 947-954
Modern Pathology

Article
Claudin-1 and claudin-5 expression patterns differentiate lung squamous cell carcinomas from adenocarcinomas

https://doi.org/10.1038/modpathol.3800835Get rights and content
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Abstract

We investigated the expression of tight junction proteins in human lung squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas by immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We found a statistically significant correlation between diagnosis and positivity of tumors with either claudin (CLDN)-1 or CLDN-5. Squamous cell carcinomas and basal cells of bronchial epithelium were positive for CLDN-1 and negative for CLDN-5, whereas adenocarcinomas, normal cylindrical cells and pneumocytes were positive for CLDN-5 and negative for CLDN-1, suggesting different pathways in tumor development and progression. CLDN-4 and ZO-1 staining were detected in both types of tumors, whereas cingulin (CGN) was not detected in squamous cell carcinomas. Quantitative RT-PCR was used to evaluate changes in transcript levels for a large panel of tight junction proteins. In squamous cell carcinomas, we observed statistically significant decreases in the mRNA levels of JAM-1, occludin, CLDN-3, CLDN-4, CLDN-7, CGN, ZO-2 and ZO-3, and an increase in CLDN-1 mRNA. In adenocarcinomas, when transcript levels were compared with bronchial cells, we observed statistically significant decreases in the mRNA levels of CLDN-1, CLDN-3, CLDN-4, CLDN-7, ZO-2 and ZO-3. These results indicate that characterization of tight junction protein expression in human lung tumors can be an additional diagnostic tool and provide new insights on their histogenesis.

Keywords

lung
adenocarcinoma
squamous cell carcinoma
claudin
cingulin
immunohistochemistry

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on Modern Pathology website (http://www.nature.com/modpathol)

Serge Paschoud and Massimo Bongiovanni: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Supplementary information

The online version of this article (doi:10.1038/modpathol.3800835) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.