For Ki-67 staining, non-metaplastic areas of the pancreas were evaluated since the metaplastic areas are infiltrated by many immune cells that proliferate and do not represent proliferation of acinar cells.
The metaplastic areas were identified on Sirius red-stained slides by disturbed tissue morphology and lack of yellow-stained cytoplasm.
A quantification of the amount of these metaplastic areas revealed a significant difference between the two cohorts 3 days after cerulein injection (p = 0.048; Figure 3K).
The metaplastic areas revealed a loss of amylase expression (Figure 3E,F and Figure S2A,B) and an expansion of ductal cells with formation of tubular complexes (Figure 3G,H and Figure S2C,D).
Metaplastic areas (n=20) were almost constantly negative for OPN and CD44v6 staining.
The Ki-67-positive acinar cells were evaluated in the non-metaplastic areas of the pancreas.
In the biopsies of intestinal metaplasia, HIF-1 α was expressed predominantly in the metaplastic tissue areas.
Paired sets of brushings were obtained from areas of normal bronchial epithelium and from areas of metaplastic or dysplastic epithelium, or areas of frank endobronchial carcinoma.
Vascular endothelial growth factor expression and inducible nitric oxide synthase were also elevated in chronic atrophic gastritis as well as in metaplastic and dysplastic areas before the onset of gastric cancer (Feng et al, 2002).
The majority of the biopsies showing discrepancies in Histology 2a vs 2b presents small areas of metaplastic atypia, difficult to fit into the CIN groups (Geng et al, 1999; Montes et al, 1999; Ng et al, 2002; Zuna et al, 2002).
In a proof-of-principle study, our group utilized microarray-based CGH, TP53 sequencing and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to determine the extent of genetic heterogeneity between morphologically distinct areas of individual metaplastic breast cancers [ 31].
