Overexpression of placental tissue protein 17b/TIP47 in cervical dysplasias and cervical carcinoma

In our previous Western- and Northern-blot investigations, high over expres sion of placental protein 17b/TIP47 was detected in extracts of human cervi cal carcinoma tissues compared to normal conditions of the cervical tissue. PP17b serum levels were also elevated in untreated cervical carcinoma pati ents compared to healthy controls. In the present study, the expression pat tern of PP17 proteins was investigated in various cervical dysplasias and i n cervical carcinoma tissue specimens by the streptavidin-biotin immunopero xidase technique using PP17-specific antiserum. In normal third-trimester h uman placentas, which sewed as positive controls, mainly cytoplasmic PP17 i mmunostaining of syncytiotrophoblasts and chorionic trophoblasts was observ ed. Normal human uterine cervical squamous and glandular epithelia were neg ative or weakly positive, while in low grade dysplasias (CIN I-II) only the cytoplasms of dysplastic cells were weakly positive ol positive; in high g rade dysplasias (CIN III / ISC) cytoplasms of the dysplastic cells were str ongly positive. Normal and superficial cells in the differentiated zones we re negative in all tissue specimens. In cases of invasive epithelial cervic al carcinomas, small basal-type armour cells were mostly negative whilst ce lls with squamous differentiation were strongly positive for PP17. Our hypo theses for this newly detected phenomenon are briefly discussed.