Distinctive expression of CD133 between intraductal papillary neoplasms of the bile duct and bile duct adenocarcinomas

Izuru Ohtsubo; Tetsuo Ajiki; Yuichi Hori; Sae Murakami; Kazuya Shimizu; Tomoo Itoh; Michio Shimizu; Takumi Fukumoto; Yonson Ku

doi:10.1111/j.1872-034X.2011.00954.x

Distinctive expression of CD133 between intraductal papillary neoplasms of the bile duct and bile duct adenocarcinomas

Hepatol Res. 2012 Jun;42(6):574-82. doi: 10.1111/j.1872-034X.2011.00954.x. Epub 2012 Jan 6.

Authors

Izuru Ohtsubo¹, Tetsuo Ajiki, Yuichi Hori, Sae Murakami, Kazuya Shimizu, Tomoo Itoh, Michio Shimizu, Takumi Fukumoto, Yonson Ku

Affiliation

¹ Department of Surgery, Division of Hepato-Billiary-Pancreatic Surgery Division of Diagnostic Pathology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine Department of Biophysics, Division of Medical Chemistry, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences Department of Internal Medicine, Kobe Medical Center, Kobe Department of Pathology, Saitama Medical University International Medical Center, Saitama, Japan.

PMID: 22221899
DOI: 10.1111/j.1872-034X.2011.00954.x

Abstract

Aim: Intraductal papillary neoplasm of the bile duct (IPNB), a novel entity of biliary disease, is recently advocated as the counterpart of pancreatic intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) because both are in common with a large amount of mucin production and papillary growth. Based on our recent finding that expression of CD133, a cancer stem cell marker, is lacking in pancreatic IPMN, we herein focused on CD133 expression of IPNB in comparison with intrahepatic cholangiocellular carcinoma (IHCCC) or hilar bile duct cancer (HBDC).

Methods: Expression of CD133 protein was immunohistochemically determined in patients with IPNB (n = 7), IHCCC (n = 16) or HBDC (n = 8). In addition, morphological and immunohistochemical mucin expression patterns were characterized in IPNB, and clinicopathological features including prognosis were compared between IPNB and other biliary tumors.

Results: The IPNB group included significantly more females than the other two groups, and had a longer survival time. While no CD133 expression was observed in IPNB tumor, 16.4% of cancer cells in IHCCC and 17.2% of cells in HBDC expressed CD133. Among seven patients with IPNB, six (86%) were morphologically the pancreatobiliary type and four of six showed mucin expression pattern of the typical pancreatobiliary type (MUC1+/MUC2-/MUC5AC+).

Conclusion: Loss of CD133 expression supports the hypothesis that IPNB is a counterpart of pancreatic IPMN with a differing carcinogenesis from conventional bile duct adenocarcinomas.