H. Khalid et al., IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL EXPRESSION OF THE ESTROGEN RECEPTOR-RELATED ANTIGEN (ER-D5) IN HUMAN INTRACRANIAL TUMORS, Cancer, 75(10), 1995, pp. 2571-2578
Background. Expression of the estrogen receptor-related antigen (ER-D5
) has been reported in some normal and neoplastic tissues. The authors
evaluated the expression of ER-D5 in 143 intracranial tumors of diffe
rent histologic types. Methods. Formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tumo
r sections were stained with the monoclonal D5 antibody by avidin-biot
in complex immunohistochemistry. Results. Eighty-eight (62%) of the 14
3 brain tumors showed positive ER-D5 immunoreactivity. ER-D5 expressio
n was observed in 9/30 low grade astrocytomas, in 6/13 anaplastic astr
ocytomas, in 16/27 glioblastomas, in 2/5 ependymomas, in 5/8 medullobl
astomas, in 10/15 meningiomas, in 20/23 schwannomas, in 11/11 hemangio
blastomas, in 9/9 germ cell tumors, in 0/2 oligodendrogliomas, and in
17/28 pediatric and childhood brain tumors. The mean percentage of ER-
D5-positive cells varied in different tumor types, was lowest in the m
eningotheliomatous meningiomas, and was highest in the hemangioblastom
as. ER-D5 immunoreactivity was also observed in the microvascular endo
thelial proliferations and in tumor blood vessels. ER-D5 expression in
tumors was not related to the overall tumor grades, but a statistical
ly significant higher percentage of ER-D5-positive cells was noted in
the glioblastomas compared with the low grade astrocytomas (P < 0.05)
and in the combined high grade tumors compared with the low grade tumo
rs (P < 0.005) if vascular-origin tumor hemangioblastomas are consider
ed a separate entity from other brain tumors. Conclusion. The current
study suggests that the ER-D5 antigen may participate in the growth of
the intracranial tumors and tumor angiogenesis. ER-D5 in embryonal an
d germ cell brain tumors suggests that ER-D5 may be a developmentally
regulated protein.