Characterization of ligands for galectins, natural galactoside-binding immunoglobulin G subfractions and sarcolectin and also of the expression of calcyclin in thyroid lesions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to characterize ligands for galectins, natural galactoside-binding immunoglobulin G subfractions and sarcolectin and also the expression of calcyclin in various benign and malignant thyroid lesions. The extent of the binding of eight glycochemical probes was quantitatively assessed using computer-assisted microscopy on 76 thyroid lesions including 10 not-otherwise-specified multinodular goiters (S-MNG), 11 multinodular goiters with adenomatous hyperplasia (AH-MNG), 8 normomacrovesicular (NM-ADE) and 12 microvesicular (MIC-ADE) adenomas, and 9 papillary (P-CAR), 10 follicular variants of papillary (FvarP-CAR), 7 follicular (F-CAR) and 9 anaplastic (A-CAR) carcinomas. The 8 histochemical probes included 5 animal lectins (including galectins and sarcolectin), 1 polyclonal antibody (raised against calcyclin) and 2 immunoglobulin G subfractions from human serum with selectivity to a- and R-galactosyl residues. The results show that multinodular goiters with adenomatous hyperplasia exhibited histochemical characteristics intermediate to those of normal multinodular goiters and microvesicular adenomas. ~ormomacro~vesicular adenomas behaved very distinctly from microvesicular ones. ~ i c r o v e s i c u l aard enomas were more close1 y related to differentiated thyroid carcinomas than any other type of benign thyroid lesions of epithelia1 origin. Papillary and follicular carcinomas seemed to represent the two extremes of the same biological entity with the follicular variant of the papillary carcinoma serving as a biological link between these two extremes. Anaplastic carcinomas behaved in a significantly different manner Offprint requests to: Dr. Robert Kiss, Ph.D., Laboratoire d'Histopathologie, Faculte de Medecine, Un~versiteL ibre de Bruxelles, 808 route de Lennik, 1070 Brussels, Belgium. Fax: 322 555 62 85. e-mail: rkiss@med.ulb.ac.be when compared to the differentiated forms of thyroid carcinomas. The results suggest that the patterns of expression of the glycoconjugates investigated in the present study may constitute useful tools for characterizing lesions in the human thyroid.