Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule (PECAM-1) Expression in Malignant Human Tumours and their Metastases

PECAM-1 is an adhesion molecule that plays an important role in the process of tumour disease dissemination since a function in transendothelial migration, angiogenesis and immune response has been shown for this membrane protein. Nevertheless the expression of PECAM-1 protein in solid tumours is a controversial matter and it has not been clarified so far. Thus, the aim of our study was to investigate PECAM-1 expression by immunohistochemistry in primary carci-nomas from colon, breast, bladder, ovary and kidney, and in their metastases. In addition an example of primary and metastatic melanoma was also investigated. We found that PECAM-1 is expressed in the metastases of all primary car-cinomas that express PECAM-1 (colorectal, breast and urothelial bladder). By the contrary metastases from primary carcinomas non-expressing PECAM-1 are also negative for expression. In conclusion, our findings support a possible role of this molecule in metastatic development of a subset of malignant human epithelial tumours.t