Screening of Glypican- 3 Expression in Human Normal Versus Benign and Malignant Tissues: A Comparative Study Glypican- 3 Expression in Cancers

Yousef Al-Saraireh¹*,Futoon Alrawashdeh², Jehad Al-Shuneigat³, Mohammed Alsbou⁴, Nedal Alnawaiseh⁵, Hani Al-Shagahin⁶ and Ahmed Youssef⁷

¹Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Mutah University, Karak, Jordan. Post code. 61710. PO.Box: 7.

²Department of Anatomy and Histology, Faculty of Medicine, Mutah University, Karak, Jordan. Post code. 61710. PO.Box: 7.

³Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Mutah University, Karak, Jordan. Post code. 61710. PO.Box: 7.

⁴Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Mutah University, Karak, Jordan. Post code. 61710. PO.Box: 7.

⁵Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Mutah University, Karak, Jordan. Post code. 61710. PO.Box: 7.

⁶Department of Special Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Mutah University, Karak, Jordan. Post code. 61710. PO.Box:7.

⁷Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mutah University, Karak, Jordan. Post code. 61710. PO.Box:7.

Corresponding Author E-mail: Yousef_sar@hotmail.com

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2085

ABSTRACT: Glypican-3 is a heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) expressed at plasma membrane surface. Several studies demonstrated the re-expression of glypican-3 during the malignant transformation. Glypican-3 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma was suggested to be a diagnostic marker for differential diagnosis of hepatic nodules. The aim of the study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of glypican-3 as tumor marker not only in liver tumors but also in tumors of the other organs. A total of 95 surgically excised human tissues were subjected to immunohistochemical staining using a monoclonal antibody specific for glypican-3. These human tissues cover most of the common normal, benign, malignant and metastatic tumors originated from 27 anatomic sites. The immunohistochemical results revealed that glypican-3 was expressed in 21.7% of the normal tissues studied including stomach, small intestine, kidney (Normal cortex), and pancreas, while, the expression for glypican-3 was positive in 42.4% of the benign and malignant tumors. The most frequent expressing tumor was hepatocellular carcinoma. Moreover, for the first time, several tumor entities showed glypican-3 expression including malignant meningioma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, B-non Hodgkin's lymphoma,T-non Hodgkin's lymphoma.

KEYWORDS: Cancer; Glypican-3; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Immunohistochemistry; Proteoglycan

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