Expression of Cell Adhesion Molecules in Endometrial Tissue and Endometrioid Adenocarcinomas

Endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinomas are the most common histological variant of malignant tumors in the uterine cavity. In turn, the features of expression by neoplastic cells of intercellular adhesion molecules are a reliable prognostic factor in the progression of malignant tumors. One of the important indicators of cancer progression is E-cadherin, which determines the strength of intercellular adhesion and the ability of cells to spread. Among other adhesion molecules, considerable attention has recently been paid to the molecules of cell adhesion of carcino-embryonic antigen 1 (MCA-REA1). Therefore, the purpose of the study was to study the expression of E-cadherin and MCA-REA1 in normal endometrium and endometrioid adenocarcinomas. Materials and methods. To achieve this purpose, we performed tissue studies of 10 samples of normal endometrium and 30 samples of endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma (8380/3). Morphological features of neoplastic tissue were studied by hematoxylin and eosin staining. Visualization of E-cadherin and MCA-REA1 receptors was determined using the appropriate antibodies and the UltraVision Quanto Detection System HRP DAB Chromogen (Thermo scientific, USA) in similar areas of the tumor on serial sections. Results and discussion. It has been shown that endometrial tissue demonstrates different expression of MCA-REA1 and E-cadherin receptors in the normal state and in endometrioid adenocarcinomas. This indicates the absence of any functional correlation between them. Expression of MCA-REA1 was detected on the apical surface of the luminal and glandular columnar epithelium. In contrast, the endometrioid endometrial carcinoma tissues showed the pronounced heterogeneous location of MCA-REA1 in tumor cells. Moreover, due to the tumor dedifferentiation, these proteins disappear from the cell surface. On the other hand, E-cadherin is normally localized in intercellular contacts and epithelial-mesenchymal junctions. During carcinoma dedifferentiation, the intensity of E-cadherin expression decreased, which was accompanied by an increase in nuclear polymorphism of cancer cells and focal separation of cells from the total tumor mass. Conclusion. The variability of the expression patterns of MCA-REA1 and E-cadherin in the dedifferentiation of endometrioid adenocarcinoma may be an indicator of neoplastic transformation and progression of the malignant process