HISTOLOGY AND HISTOPATHOLOGY

Cellular and Molecular Biology

 

Review

Claudins in human cancer: A review

Abderrahman Ouban1 and Atif A. Ahmed2

1Departments of Pathology, Saba University School of Medicine, Saba, Netherlands-Antilles, and 2Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, United States.

Offprint requests to: Atif A. Ahmed Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, 2401 Gillham Road, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA. e-mail: aahmed@cmh.edu


Summary. Claudins are tight junction proteins that are critical for the sealing of cellular sheets and controlling paracellular ion flux. The claudin family of proteins is composed of at least 24 closely related transmembrane proteins, most of them are well characterized at the gene and protein levels. The claudins are present in variety of normal tissues, hyperplastic conditions, benign neoplasms, and cancers that exhibit epithelial differentiation. Loss of claudins expression has also been reported in several malignancies as well. Differential expression of various members of the claudins family in cancers can be used in confirming the histologic identity of certain cancers and excluding others. Examples include the use of immunohistochemical detection of claudins to differentiate between oncocytoma and chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, endometrial endometrioid carcinoma and seropapillary carcinoma, mesothelioma and metastatic adenocarcinoma, hepatocellular and biliary tract carcinomas, and between intestinal-type and diffuse-type gastric carcinoma. Expression of certain claudins can also be used as markers that can predict patient’s prognosis. Thus, it seems that attempts to identify expression claudins in cancers are becoming increasingly useful in histologic diagnosis of tumors as well as means to assess patient’s prognosis
. Histol Histopathol 25, 83-90 (2010)

Key words: Claudins, Immunohistochemistry, Cancer

DOI: 10.14670/HH-25.83