Soluble Human Leukocyte Antigen-G in the Bronchoalveolar Lavage of Lung Cancer Patients. / Antígeno leucocitario humano-G soluble en el lavado broncoalveolar de pacientes con cáncer pulmonar.

BACKGROUND: The main function of the HLA-G molecule in its membrane-bound and soluble forms is to inhibit the immune response by acting on CD4+ T cells, cytotoxic T cells, NK cells and dendritic cells. Lung cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, and annual incidence is high in both women and men. Some studies have reported an increase of HLA-G serum levels in lung cancer, probably generated by tumor cells escaping the antitumor immune response. In this study the concentration of soluble HLA-G in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in patients with primary and metastatic lung cancer was measured to determine its relation with tumor histological type and overall patient status according to the Karnofsky scale. METHODS: Thirty-one lung cancer patients were included. A tumor biopsy was obtained by bronchoscopy and the tumor type was determined by hematoxylin and eosin staining. BAL samples were obtained to measure soluble HLA-G concentrations in an ELISA sandwich assay. RESULTS: The average value of soluble HLA-G was 49.04ng/mL. No correlation between soluble HLA-G levels and age, gender or smoking was observed. A highly significant difference was observed in the levels of soluble HLA-G in BAL from patients with different histological types of lung cancer, especially in metastatic tumors. The Karnofsky index showed a significant and inverse correlation with soluble HLA-G levels in BAL. CONCLUSIONS: Soluble HLA-G protein is significantly associated with metastatic tumors and patients with lower Karnofsky index and may be useful as a prognostic marker in lung cancer.

Identification of nuclear proteins of small cell lung cancer cell line H82: An improved procedure for the analysis of silver-stained proteins.

An efficient method for digestion and extraction of proteolytic peptides from silver-stained proteins was applied to the characterization of nuclear proteins from the small cell lung cancer H82 (ATCC HTB 175) cell line previously separated by high-resolution large format two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. From 68 spots, evenly distributed on the gel area and representing a wide range of spot intensities, 63 (92%) were successfully identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) or electrospray ionozation-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). In five cases where the identification was not possible, the presence of an intense background apparently due to the leakage of polymers from the microtubes or other plastics, was detected. Extensive analysis of peptide sequences by ESI MS/MS experiments allowed the identification of post-translational modifications, such as acetylation, phosphorylation, deamidation of asparagine residues and the presence of isoaspartic acid. A new protein variant not reported in sequence databases was also detected.

Carcinoma de pequenas células do esôfago com apresentaçäo múltipla: relato de caso e revisäo da literatura / Multiple small cell carcinoma of the esophagus: report of a case and literature review

Paciente de 47 anos, tabagista e etilista pesado, apresntou quadro de dor abdominal, emagrecimento, febre vespertina e sudorese noturna. A endoscopia digestiva alta mostrou lesäo sugestiva de neoplasia esofagiana avançada, acometendo amplamente o órgäo. A bipsia diagnosticou carcinoma indiferenciado de pequenas células. O paciente foi submetido a quimioterapia, porém veio a falecer quatro meses após o diagnóstico. O presente caso é particularmente interessante por sua apresentaçäo múltipla no esôfago e sua raridade

Diagnostic value of p53 protein in the study of serous effusions.

The differential diagnosis between neoplastic and reactive mesothelial cells is one of the most frequent problems in the study of serous effusions. We assessed the utility of the immunohistochemical determination of p53 protein as a marker of malignancy in 34 embedded blocks of neoplastic fluids and 30 nonneoplastic effusions. Eleven (32.4%) of the tumor fluids were positive for this antibody, while all the nonneoplastic fluids were negative. A specificity of 100% and a sensitivity of 59% were observed. The immunohistochemical determination of p53 protein seems to be helpful in the differential diagnosis of effusions; its principal limitation is its relatively low sensitivity.

[Presence of ferruginous bodies in cancerous pulmonary tissue]. / Presencia de cuerpos ferruginosos en tejido pulmonar canceroso.

The correlation between high counts of ferruginous bodies (FB) and pulmonary cancer was investigated. Autopsy cases between 1982 and 1988 were chosen, and studied at Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias. Two grams of lung tissue were digested with sodium hypochlorite. We found no differences in the histologic types of cancer: 18.0 FB per gram (FB/g) for the adenocarcinoma group and 16.0 FB/g for both the epidermoid and anaplastic groups. The asbestos core was predominant in all FB analysed (greater than 85%). Males, Mexico city residents and smokers showed to higher amounts of FB. We concluded that there is an environmental exposure to particles in the cases studied.