Publication: Distinctive expression of STAT3 in papillary thyroid
carcinomas and a subset of follicular adenomas
Authors
Trovato, M. ; Grosso, Maddalena ; Vitarelli, E. ; Ruggeri, R.M. ; Alesci, S. ; Trimarchi, F. ; Barresi, G. ; Benvenga, S.
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Publisher
Murcia : F. Hernández
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DOI
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), HGF
receptor (c-met) and the interleukin 6 (IL-6) are
expressed in thyroid nodules. In extra-thyroidal tissues,
the HGF/c-met and IL-6/IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) systems
activate STAT3, a member of the signal transducers and
activators of transcription (STATs) family. To evaluate
whether either system utilizes STAT3 in thyroid nodules,
we examined the immunohistochemical expression of
HGF, c-met, IL-6, IL-6R, STAT3 in 6 normal thyroids
and in 68 thyroid nodules.
STAT3 expression was observed in 12/12 (100%)
papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) but in none of the
follicular tumors. Among benign thyroid nodules, only
2/10 (20%) follicular adenomas (FA) were STAT3+. All
these 14 STAT3+ cases expressed both HGF and c-met,
but only 5 PTC co-expressed IL-6 and IL-6R and the 2
FA were IL-6+ but IL-6R-. The remaining 8 FA were all
HGF-/c-met-, but IL-6+; of these 8, only 2 were also IL-
6R+.
In conclusion, in thyroid nodules STAT3 is
expressed only in PTC and a number of FA. Since these
cases are consistently HGF+/c-met+ and only one-third
of them co-express IL-6/IL-6R, STAT3 expression
correlates with the HGF/c-met expression, not with the
IL-6/IL-6R expression. The 100% rate of expression of
the HGF/c-met/STAT3 signaling in PTC could be
relevant for the establishment of the papillary phenotype.
Because of the communeness of a HGF/c-met/STAT3
pattern between all PTC and a subset of FA, we
speculate that a fraction of FA may progress to PTC.
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