Presence Of Parathyroid Hormone-related Protein Research Articles

Increase in epidermal growth factor receptor and its mRNA levels by parathyroid hormone (1-34) and parathyroid hormone-related protein (1-34) during differentiation of human trophoblast cells in culture.

Human cytotrophoblasts in culture aggregate and fuse to form syncytiotrophoblasts. This process is associated with an increase in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression [Alsat et al.: J Cell Physiol 154:122-128, 1993]. Recent studies have demonstrated the presence of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) in the human uterus and placenta. This led us to study the effect of PTH (1-34) and PTHrP (1-34) on the expression of EGFR during this differentiation process. Both peptides induced a concentration-dependent increase in EGF binding, with a maximal effect at the physiological concentration of 1 nM. EGFR protein level assessed by cross-linking and immunoblotting and EGFR biological activity assessed by measuring its EGF-induced autophosphorylation were increased 2- and 2.5-fold, respectively, when cells were treated for 24 h with 0.1 microM PTHrP or PTH compared to control cells. This effect was time-dependent with a maximum at 3 h of treatment. This treatment also increased trophoblast cell EGFR mRNA levels, suggesting transcriptional regulation of the EGFR. To ascertain whether activation of protein kinase C (PKC) or protein kinase A (PKA) is involved in this PTH effect, we determined EGFR protein level and EGFR autophosphorylation after exposure of cells to PKA inhibitor and PKC inhibitor, alone or together with the peptide. The presence of a PKC inhibitor blocked a further increase in EGFR number by PTH, while PKA inhibitor had no effect. These results show that PTH and PTHrP increase the synthesis of EGF receptors which are strongly expressed in syncytiotrophoblasts and suggested that these peptides might be involved in human placental development.

Immunohistochemical evaluation of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) in the uterine cervix.

We investigated the immunohistochemical localization of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), a major factor responsible for the humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy, in uterine cervical lesions. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens from 16 cases of normal and reactive conditions, 45 cases of cervical intra-epithelial neoplasm (CIN) and 63 cases of invasive cancer were studied immunohistochemically by the avidine-biotin-peroxidase method, using an anti-PTHrP monoclonal antibody (MAb), 4B3. In normal and reactive conditions, PTHrP was positive in parabasal cells, squamous metaplasia, and hyperplastic reserve cells. In neoplastic conditions, 96% (43/45) of invasive squamous-cell carcinomas were positive for PTHrP, regardless of the patients' serum calcium levels. Two cases with hypercalcemia were strongly positive for PTHrP and showed prominent stromal interaction of the scirrhous type. In CIN, including koilocytic atypia, 76% (32/42) of cases were positive for PTHrP. In contrast, 91% (10/11) of adenocarcinomas were negative for PTHrP. In conclusion, we found, first, that in non-neoplastic conditions, the presence of PTHrP was correlated with the transformation of progenitor cells into squamous epithelia and with the maturation of keratinocytes and, second, that in squamous-cell carcinoma, the degree of keratinization and stromal interaction was higher in direct proportion to the apparent incidence of detectable PTHrP.

Parathyroid hormone related protein is localized in the granular layer of normal skin and in the dermal infiltrates of mycosis fungoides but is absent in psoriatic lesions.

Biopsies of normal and diseased skin were immunohistochemically investigated for the presence of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTH-rp). In normal skin and several skin disorders a monoclonal antibody against the 34-68 sequence of PTH-rp was found to be exclusively located in the granular layer. PTH-rp could not be detected in untreated psoriatic plaque lesions even when a granular layer was present. Psoriatic lesions improving after 1-2 weeks' treatment with betamethasone or vitamin D3 analogue revealed PTH-rp reactivity just above the granular layer. These findings substantiate a possible role for PTH-rp as a growth inhibitor. In the dermis the granular layer in the upper part of the hair follicles was stained for PTH-rp and the dermal infiltrates in 5 of 10 patients were stained with mycosis fungoides.

Parathyroid hormone related protein is localized in the granular layer of normal skin and in the dermal infiltrates of mycosis fungoides but is absent in psoriatic lesions.

Biopsies of normal and diseased skin were immunohistochemically investigated for the presence of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTH-rp). In normal skin and several skin disorders a monoclonal antibody against the 34-68 sequence of PTH-rp was found to be exclusively located in the granular layer. PTH-rp could not be detected in untreated psoriatic plaque lesions even when a granular layer was present. Psoriatic lesions improving after 1-2 weeks' treatment with betamethasone or vitamin D3 analogue revealed PTH-rp reactivity just above the granular layer. These findings substantiate a possible role for PTH-rp as a growth inhibitor. In the dermis the granular layer in the upper part of the hair follicles was stained for PTH-rp and the dermal infiltrates in 5 of 10 patients were stained with mycosis fungoides.

Parathyroid hormone-related protein of malignancy: immunohistochemical and biochemical studies in normocalcaemic and hypercalcaemic patients with cancer.

Immunohistochemical staining for parathyroid hormone-related protein was performed in 27 tumours from 19 normocalcaemic and eight hypercalcaemic patients with cancer. All the tumours from hypercalcaemic patients stained positively for the protein, as did 17 tumours from normocalcaemic patients. Only hypercalcaemic patients had biochemical evidence of increased bone resorption and abnormalities of renal tubular reabsorption of calcium and phosphate, consistent with the presence of parathyroid hormone-related protein. While tumour mass was higher in hypercalcaemic patients, only one of the initially normocalcaemic patients with positively staining tumours subsequently went on to develop hypercalcaemia and more advanced disease. These data confirm the importance of parathyroid hormone-related protein as a mediator of humoral hypercalcaemia in patients with solid tumours and suggest that low tumour mass may be one reason why serum calcium values are not increased in all patients with tumours containing parathyroid hormone-related protein. None the less normocalcaemia, despite tumour progression in patients whose tumours stained positively for parathyroid hormone-related protein, suggests that other factors may also be important, such as differences in the rate of secretion of the protein by different tumours, or the production of different forms of parathyroid hormone-related protein with varying biological effects.

Identification of Parathyroid Hormone-related Protein in Canine Apocrine Adenocarcinoma of the Anal Sac

The presence of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) in the apocrine adenocarcinoma tumor line (CAC-8) derived from a hypercalcemic dog was demonstrated by western and northern blot analyses. Western blots of CAC-8 tumor extracts revealed a major protein with a molecular weight of approximately 18,000 daltons that cross-reacted with antiserum to human PTHrP. Northern blots demonstrated multiple-sized messenger RNA transcripts in CAC-8 that hybridized to a full-length cDNA probe to human PTHrP. Adenocarcinomas derived from apocrine glands of the anal sac also were stained immunohistochemically for antigens that cross-react with antiserum to human PTHrP. The tumor line (CAC-8) maintained in nude mice stained positively for PTHrP in 13 of 24 tumors. Three of ten apocrine adenocarcinomas from dogs with hypercalcemia stained for PTHrP, whereas zero of ten tumors were positive from normocalcemic dogs. Normal canine epidermal keratinocytes and areas of squamous metaplasia in a perianal gland carcinoma also were positive for PTHrP. These data demonstrated that canine tissues contained a homologue to human PTHrP that likely is important in the pathogenesis of humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy.