| Abstract: | ![]()
AIM: This study is based on the result of the study in HL and ALCL employing gene chip technique, in which writer found that there was distinctly different expression of caspase-4 between HL and ALCL cell lines at the level of mRNA. From the point of view, we try to identify at the level of protein whether there is different expression of this gene in HL and ALCL tissues as well. METHODS: HE staining, the monoclonal antibodies CD30 (BerH2), CD15 (C3D-1), CD20 (L26) and CD45RO (UCHL1) were used for selecting the cases of HL and ALCL. Specific high affinitive anti-caspase-4 polyclonal antibody was used by immunohistochemical staining to analyze the expression of caspase-4 in 18 cases of HL and 15 cases of ALCL. RESULTS: The expression of caspase-4 demonstrated a strong positive staining in all ALCL cases (15/15,100%), whereas negative in 16 HL cases (88.8%), while other two cases were weakly stained (11.2%), showing a distinct difference (P<0.01) between two groups. CONCLUSIONS: (1) The diverse expression of caspase-4 gene in HL and ALCL groups implies a different mechanism of oncogenesis and the different defects of signal transduction pathway of apoptosis in these two entities of lymphomas. (2) Clarification of this gene might be useful for the differential diagnosis of HL and ALCL. Furthermore, it probably provides theoretically gene therapy strategies for lymphoma in the future. |
