Comparing normal primary endocervical adenoepithelial cells to uninfected and influenza B virus infected human cervical adenocarcinoma HeLa cells.

Human adenocarcinoma HeLa cells surviving infection with low (10(-9) units), medium (10(-6) units), and high (10(-2) units) influenza B titers were compared to their uninfected precursors and to normal endocervical adenoepithelial and metaplastic cells using Papanikolaou-staining method and immunocytochemistry. Normal primary endocervical and infected HeLa cells surviving infection shared similar morphologic, phenotypic, and divisional patterns that differed drastically from those of uninfected HeLa cells. The number of infected hosts surviving 6-7 days of viral exposure did not change during 3-week follow-up period, and their cyclin E levels suggested that they had been arrested to the G1 phase of the cell cycle by viral stress. Our findings suggest that in addition to apoptosis, nononcogenic viral stress activated the expression of endocervical metaplastic-like motifs in surviving hosts. A mechanism of cell response to nononcogenic viral stress was proposed to explain these findings. We conclude that nononcogenic respiratory viruses specifically target and eliminate abnormal cells ectopically overexpressing appropriate receptors and may complement current treatments of cervical cancer.

Decidualized and pre-decidualized normal endometrial stromal cells produce more O-linked N-acetylglucosamine containing epitope H than non-decidualized normal endometrial stromal cells.

The epitope H contains an O-linked N-acetylglucosamine residue in a specific conformation and/or environment recognized by the monoclonal antibody H (mAbH). mAbH stains two bands with Mr x10(-3) of 209 and 62 in lysates of cultured rat astrocytes. In addition, in extracts of cultured MCF-7 breast carcinoma cell line cells it stains cytokeratin 8 and five polypeptides originating from Triton X-100-soluble (Mr x10(-3) of 232, 67 and 37) and from the Triton X-100-insoluble (Mr x10(-3) of 51 and 50) fractions, respectively. In our previous studies we used the mAbH to investigate by immunostaining the expression of the epitope H in normal human brains, human brains with a variety of lesions, astrocytic tumors, infiltrating ductal breast carcinomas, fibroadenomas, and mitochondria-rich normal, metaplastic and neoplastic cells. In order to gain further insight into the expression patterns of the epitope H in human tissues we used the mAbH to investigate the immunohistochemical expression of the epitope H in normal human endometrium, including 30 cases of proliferative endometrium, 30 cases of early secretory endometrium, 30 cases of mid secretory endometrium, 30 cases of late secretory endometrium and 30 cases of decidual tissues. The main results were the following: 1) The decidual stromal cells presented in all cases high cytoplasmic expression of the epitope H; 2) The pre-decidual stromal cells presented in all cases of late secretory endometrium significant cytoplasmic expression of the epitope H ranging from moderate to high expression; 3) The non pre-decidual stromal cells of the functional endometrial layer presented in all cases insignificant cytoplasmic expression of the epitope H ranging from null to low expression; 4) The stromal cells of the basal layer of the endometrium and decidua did not express the epitope H in any case; 5) The endometrial stromal granulocytes did not express the epitope H in any case and 6) The blood vessel wall cells (endothelial and smooth muscle) of the endometrium through the whole duration of the menstrual cycle and of the decidua presented high cytoplasmic expression of the epitope H. It is concluded that decidualized and pre-decidualized human normal endometrial stromal cells show increased expression of the O-linked N-acetylglucosamine containing epitope H compared to non-decidualized endometrial stromal cells. These findings suggest that the expression of the epitope H may be under positive progesteronic control in normal human endometrium. Further investigation of the antigens bearing the epitope H might help to gain further insight into the histophysiology and the pathology of human endometrium.

The expression of the epitope H recognized by the monoclonal antibody H is higher in astrocytomas compared to anaplastic astrocytomas and glioblastomas.

The epitope H contains an O-linked N-acetylglucosamine residue in a specific conformation and/or environment recognized by the monoclonal antibody H (mAbH). mAbH stains two bands with Mr x0.001 of 209 and 62 in lysates of cultured rat astrocytes. In normal human brains epitope H is absent from the overwhelming majority of normal astrocytes and only sparse reactivity is observed, confined mostly to fibrous astrocytes. Upregulation of the epitope H takes place in reactive astrocytes. In the present study we used the mAbH to investigate the immunohistochemical expression of the epitope H in 41 cases of astrocytic tumors including 19 cases of astrocytomas, 8 cases of anaplastic astrocytomas and 14 cases of glioblastomas. Seven out of 19 cases (37%) of astrocytomas showed weak staining, 10 cases (53%) moderate staining and 2 cases (10%) intense staining. Two out of 8 cases (25%) of anaplastic astrocytomas appeared negative, 3 cases (37.5%) showed weak staining and 3 cases (37.5%) moderate staining. Four out of 14 cases (28.5) of glioblastomas appeared negative, 7 cases (50%) showed weak staining, 2 cases (14%) showed moderate staining and only one case (7.5%) showed intense staining. There was a statistically significant elevation of the expression of the epitope H in astrocytomas compared to anaplastic astrocytomas and glioblastomas (p=0.047). These results indicate that the expression of the epitope H decreases in parallel with the increase of the grade of astrocytic tumors from low to higher grade neoplasms. This could be of interest for predicting the progression of an astrocytic tumor since it is documented that astrocytomas progress to tumors of higher grade of malignancy. Further investigation of the antigens bearing the epitope H might help to gain further insight into the mechanisms which regulate the progression of astrocytic tumors and to examine the relevance of the mAbH staining with respect to the prognosis of these neoplasms.