TY - JOUR
TI - Immunodetection of gastrin-releasing peptide in malignant melanoma cells
AU - Charitopoulos, KN
AU - Lazaris, AC
AU - Aroni, K
AU - Kavantzas, N and
AU - Nikolakopoulou, E
AU - Davaris, P
JO - Melanoma Research
PY - 2000
VL - 10
TODO - 4
SP - 395-400
PB - Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
SN - 0960-8931, 1473-5636
TODO - 10.1097/00008390-200008000-00012
TODO - bombesin; gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP); immunohistochemistry;
melanoma; neuropeptide
TODO - Gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP), the mammalian counterpart of bombesin,
was first identified in the nervous system of the gastrointestinal
tract. Little is known about its distribution in the human skin or about
its function in certain diseases such as malignant melanoma. Recently
functional GRP receptors have been found on human melanoma cell lines.
We therefore investigated, using immunohistochemistry, whether human
melanoma cells express GRP and whether there is a significant change in
its distribution among the different clinical types of melanoma and a
connection to histopathological features such as growth phase, type of
malignant cells, Breslow thickness and Clark level of invasion. We
demonstrated the existence of GRP in all clinicopathological types of
melanoma; a predilection for quantitatively increased GRP immunostaining
was noticed in nodular melanomas (P = 0.007). As well as this, we
observed a restriction of GRP expression at a specific level of
invasion, i.e. within the reticular dermis (Clark IV) (P = 0.032). GRP
immunoreactivity was found to be associated with an increased amount of
melanin pigment in malignant cells (P = 0.054). The presence of GRP in
malignant melanocytes, along with its association with the various
histopathological features, suggests that GRP may play a role in the
pathophysiology of this type of cutaneous tumour. (C) 2000 Lippincott
Williams & Wilkins.
ER -