Abstract
BackgroundIn normal conditions FSHR are expressed in granulosa cells of the ovary and Sertoli cells of the testis. They can be expressed also in gonadal tumours. However, recently the expression of FSHR was found in tumoral cells and intra-tumoral blood vessels of many other tumours, including thyroid tumours. Aim of this study was to see whether the expression of FSHR can be useful in the differentiation of benign and malignant thyroid lesions.Methods44 samples of surgically excised thyroids were immunostained with anti- FSHR antibody raised against 1–190 amino acid sequence from the human FSHR.ResultsNon-neoplastic thyroid follicles (i.e. the follicles situated outside the tumour) do not show the immunostaining for FSHR. The same concerns the majority of follicular adenomas. In contrast, 87.5% of follicular cancers, the same percentage of papillary cancers and all the examined undifferentiated cancers showed the FSHR immunopositivity of tumoral cells. A tendency towards the higher frequency of FSHR – positive blood vessels also concerns malignant thyroid tumours.ConclusionsThe ectopic FSHR immunostaining seems to be useful to differentiate malignant from benign lesions, especially follicular cancers from follicular adenomas. However, the further studies on larger material are needed.
Highlights
In normal conditions FSHR are expressed in granulosa cells of the ovary and Sertoli cells of the testis
The ectopic FSHR immunostaining was absent in nonneoplastic thyroid follicles (Figure 1) and in the majority of follicular adenomas
The FSHR expression can be detected in tumoral cells of majority (88.8%, 32/36) of thyroid cancers
Summary
In normal conditions FSHR are expressed in granulosa cells of the ovary and Sertoli cells of the testis. They can be expressed in gonadal tumours. Some years ago Radu et al [2] reported on the ectopic expression of FSHR in the endothelium of intratumoral and peritumoral blood vessels in several malignant extra-gonadal tumours [2]. We confirmed this finding in endocrine tumours, including pituitary adenomas, adrenal benign and malignant tumours and neuroendocrine tumours of lungs and of the alimentary tract (carcinoids). The latter observations corroborate with the earlier findings of Ben-Josef et al [5]
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