Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Jun 15;3(2):209-14.
doi: 10.3889/oamjms.2015.044. Epub 2015 Apr 27.

Tumor-Associated Macrophage (TAM) and Angiogenesis in Human Colon Carcinoma

Manal A Badawi  1 , Dalia M Abouelfadl  1 , Sonia L El-Sharkawy  1 , Wafaa E Abd El-Aal  1 , Naglaa F Abbas  1
Affiliations

Tumor-Associated Macrophage (TAM) and Angiogenesis in Human Colon Carcinoma

Manal A Badawi et al. Open Access Maced J Med Sci. .

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to clarify how macrophages affect prognosis in cancer colon and their association with tumor angiogenesis.

Material and methods: Forty four biopsies of colon carcinoma and 15 of benign adenomatous polyps were investigated for macrophages infiltration and microvessels density using immunohistochemistry and image morphometric analysis. Macrophages and blood vessels were stained immunohistochemically by CD68 and F-VIII markers respectively. The morphometric analysis was carried out on the immunohistochemically stained slides using the Leica Qwin 500 Image Analyzer. Both of macrophages infiltration and microvessels density were correlated with histological tumor grade, stage and lymph node metastases and were correlated with each others.

Results: Macrophage infiltration was significantly higher in malignant cases than in benign polyps. High macrophage infiltration and hypervascularity were significantly correlated with T-staging and lymph nodes metastasis. A significant correlation was found between macrophage infiltration and microvessels densitie in malignant tumors where hypervascularity was significantly correlated with high macrophages infiltration.

Conclusion: The significant correlation between macrophage infiltration and tumor angiogenesis suggests an interaction between macrophages and cancer cells stimulating microvessels formation, tumor invasion and metastasis in colon cancer. We recommend that macrophages infiltration should be evaluated to investigate their clinical value in development of individualized therapeutic regimens for management of colon carcinoma.

Keywords: Adenomatous polyps; CD68; Factor VIII; angiogenesis; cancer colon; macrophages.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Immunohistochemical expression of CD68, macrophage specific marker, in adenomatous polyp (A) and colon carcinoma (B). Note that colon carcinoma is more infiltrated by macrophage than adenomatous polyp (Immunohistochemistry x 200).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Adenomatous polyp (A) and colon carcinoma (B) immunohistochemically stained for FVIII revealing more vascularity of carcinoma than adenomatous polyp (Immunohistochemistry x 200).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Quatromoni JG, Eruslanov E. Tumor-associated macrophages:function. Phenotype, and link to prognosis in human lung cancer. Am J Transl Res. 2012;4(4):376–389. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kim S, Cho SW, Min HS, Kim KM, Yeom GJ, Kim EY, Lee KE, Yun YG, Park DJ, Park YJ. The expression of tumor-associated macrophages in papillary thyroid carcinoma. Endocrinol Metab (Seoul) 2013;28(3):192–198. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ladusch M, Schaffner H, Ullmann L, Littmann M, Reimann S, Gindl P, Ambrosius H. Pre-and postoperative reactivity of breast cancer patients to tumor associated antigens and HEP in the macrophage electrophoresis mobility (MEM) test. Arch Geschwulstforsch. 1982;52:469–478. - PubMed
    1. Neumeister B, Hambsch K, Storch H. Macrophage adherence inhibition test (MAI) in Wistar rats bearing Jensen tumors. I. MAI after incubation with tumor-associated antigens. Arch Geschwulstforsch. 1983;53:521–528. - PubMed
    1. Bingle L, Brown NJ, Lewis CE. The role of tumour-associated macrophages in tumour progression:implications for new anticancer therapies. J Pathol. 2002;196:254–265. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources