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
. 2022 Oct-Dec;26(4):589.
doi: 10.4103/jomfp.jomfp_370_20. Epub 2022 Dec 22.

Immunohistochemical analysis of cathepsin-D in benign and malignant salivary gland neoplasms. Evaluation of its role as a prognostic indicator

Mridula Mohan  1 , Rakesh Suresh  1 , Mahija Janardhanan  1 , Vindhya Savithri  1 , Thara Aravind  1
Affiliations

Immunohistochemical analysis of cathepsin-D in benign and malignant salivary gland neoplasms. Evaluation of its role as a prognostic indicator

Mridula Mohan et al. J Oral Maxillofac Pathol. 2022 Oct-Dec.

Abstract

Background: Salivary gland tumors are histologically the most heterogeneous group of tumors. Traditional diagnostics and grading of these tumors often fail to provide any insight into patient's clinical course. Cathepsin-D is a lysosomal acid protease secreted in increased levels in several malignancies. However, its role in salivary gland tumors has not been studied extensively. The present study aims to assess the expression of cathepsin-D in malignant and benign salivary gland tumors and to compare its expression in these tumors.

Materials and methods: A total of 40 salivary gland tumors which included 10 cases each of adenoid cystic carcinoma, mucoepidermoid carcinoma, pleomorphic adenoma and Warthin's tumor were evaluated immunohistochemically for cathepsin-D expression. Intergroup comparison of cathepsin-D expression was done between the benign and malignant groups using the Mann-Whitney U-test. Intragroup comparison was also done using Kruskal-Wallis test.

Results: A statistically significant difference in the expression of cathepsin-D was observed between the benign and malignant groups. The malignant group showed a considerably higher cathepsin-D expression (mean value 6.284 ± 4.377) when compared to the benign group (mean value 2.281 ± 2.459). The differences in the immunopositivity between the malignant and benign groups were found to be highly significant (P = 0.004).

Conclusions: Increased expression of cathepsin-D is observed in the malignant salivary gland neoplasms. This may prove to be a useful marker for the aggressive biologic behavior as well as invasive potential of salivary gland neoplasms.

Keywords: Cathepsin-D; malignant and benign; prognosis; salivary gland neoplasms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Immunohistochemistry of cathepsin-D expression in Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (×40)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Immunohistochemistry of cathepsin-D expression in adenoid cystic carcinoma (×40)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Immunohistochemistry of cathepsin-D expression in Warthin's tumor (×40)
Figure 4
Figure 4
Immunohistochemistry of cathepsin-D in pleomorphic adenoma (×40)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Nagao T, Sato E, Inoue R, Oshiro H, Takahashi RH, Nagai T, et al. Immunohistochemical analysis of salivary gland tumors: Application for surgical pathology practice. Acta Histochem Cytochem. 2012;45:269–82. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vigneswaran N, Müller S, DeRose P, Cohen C. Cathepsin-D and tumor associated antigen DF3 in salivary gland neoplasia. Differential diagnostic and prognostic applications. Pathol Res Pract. 1994;190:1174–84. - PubMed
    1. Ellis GL, Auclair PL, Gnepp DR, Wenig BM. Vol. 25. Philadelphia: W. B Saunders; 1991. Surgical Pathology of Salivary Glands; pp. 1–39.
    1. Seifert G, Brocheriou C, Cardesa A, Evason J. Who International histological classification of tumours; Tentative histological classification of salivary gland tumours. Pathol Res Pr. 1990;186:555–81. - PubMed
    1. Yonezawa S, Takahashi T, Wang XJ, Wong RN, Hartsuck JA, Tang J. Structures at the proteolytic processing region of cathepsin D. J Biol Chem. 1988;263:16504–11. - PubMed