Heparanase and heparanase 2 display differently deregulation in neuroendocrine tumors, depending on their differentiation grade
Beatriz García1,2,3,*, Olivia García-Suárez4,*, Iván Fernández-Vega5, Aitana Vallina1, Aurora Astudillo1,6 and Luis M. Quirós2,3
1Fundación de Investigación Oftalmológica (FIO), Instituto Oftalmológico Fernández Vega, Oviedo, 2Instituto Universitario de Oncología de Asturias (IUOPA), Oviedo, 3Departamento de Biología Funcional, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, 4Departamento de Morfología y Biología Celular, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, 5Departamento de Patología, Hospital Universitario de Araba, Álava and 6Departamento de Patología, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain
*Both equally contributed to the study
Offprint requests to: Luis M. Quirós, PhD., Departamento de Biología Funcional, Facultad de Medicina, Julián Clavería s/n. 33006, Oviedo, Spain. e-mail: quirosluis@uniovi.es
Summary. Heparanase is a glucuronidase that appears upregulated in many human cancers and is involved in cellular invasion and tumor metastasis. Heparanase 2 is a homologue of heparanase that lacks enzymatic activity and displays anti-metastatic features. The aim of this work was to analyze the expression of both molecules in neuroendocrine tumors. We investigated the transcription of heparanases in lung neuroendocrine tumors well- and poorly differentiated using RT-PCR, and the expresion of the proteins by means of immunohistochemistry. The tumors were selected according to different malignancy WHO 2013 grades and were arranged in tissue arrays. The prometastatic enzyme heparanase appeared overexpressed in well- but not in poorly differentiated tumors, irrespective of their location. Moreover, the anti-metastatic heparanase 2 increased its expression in well-differentiated tumors, but strongly decreased in poorly differentiated ones, again independently of anatomic origin. Given the involvement of both molecules in tumor progression, through both their catalytic and non-enzymatic properties, there would seem to be a relationship between the regulation of their expression and the features of the neuroendocrine tumor. Histol Histopathol 31, 73-81 (2016)
Key words: Neuroendocrine tumorm, Proteoglycan, Glycosaminoglycan, Heparanase
DOI: 10.14670/HH-11-650