PYNPASE EXPRESSION IN HUMAN COLON-CANCER

Although colorectal cancer tissue is rich in pyrimidine nucleoside pho sphorylase (PyNPase), there is no consensus as to whether cancer cells or stromal cells predominately express PyNPase. We micro-dissected OC T compound embedded frozen tissue sections into epithelial and stromal components and then analyzed the extracted samples separately. The Py NPase expression level was higher in stromal cells than in cancer cell s and the difference increased with inflammation induced by the immuno stimulator OK432. These results suggest that stromal cells are the maj or PyNPase source in colorectal cancer. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Irel and Ltd.