engleski

LIN28 and SALL4 expression in human testis: a comparative study

LIN28 has been shown to have an important role in primordial germ cell and prespermatogonia development but also in malignant transformation of germ cells in mouse. SALL4 transcription factor is associated with embryonic cell pluripotency and has been shown as a useful immunohistochemical marker for prespermatogonia and germ cell tumors. However, information of comparative distribution of LIN28 and SALL4 in human male tissues is limited. In this study, we examined the protein expression profile of LIN28 and SALL4 in archived fetal human testis (GW 21-30) samples and in 5 testicular biopsies with impaired spermatogenesis or with carcinoma in situ positive for PLAP. FFPE samples of testicular biopsies of azoospermic men were obtained from Andrology clinic in KBC Zagreb. The immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence labelling was performed. The results had demonstrated that LIN28 is a sensitive marker for testicular carcinoma in situ with high specificity while it overlaps with the SALL4 expression. In our study, none of the used immunohistochemical markers were present in infertile testis samples (negative for PLAP). We conclude that LIN28 with SALL4 show a great overlap in terms of diagnosis of human testicular carcinoma in situ which is expressionally similar to human prespermatogonia.

LIN28 ; SALL4

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