The relationship between E-cadherin presence/absence and the integrity of the desmosomes at the same level becomes important regarding the discrepancies between E-cadherin lack of expression in severe invasive carcinomas and the desmosome activity.
Purpose: In the present study, we have evaluated the presence of E-cadherin (EC) in 34 cases of metastatic or non-metastatic invasive ductal breast carcinomas (IDC) by immunohistochemistry followed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) evaluation on samples prepared from paraffin sections.
Materials and methods: Our study has analyzed 34 paraffin blocks incoming from 20 cases with documented presence of metastatic invasion and 14 cases without metastases. All samples were processed and stained by classic Hematoxylin-Eosin, immunohistochemistry to detect EC presence and transmission electron microscopy.
Results: Our results, even on a small pilot group, emphasize that EC presence is associated with the complete desmosomal integrity in non-metastatic cases, at least for the investigated areas. From the metastatic IDC cases, we have observed reduced EC expression in only three cases and important loss of desmosomal arrangement, mainly at the desmosomal plate level.
Conclusions: This observation can issue the hypothesis that even in IDC cells that express EC, the invasive potential depend not only on EC-dependent junctions but also on the desmosome integrity. Also, correlated relationship between EC expression, potentially explored desmogleins, desmocollin, desmoplakin and plakoglobin expression and TEM ultrastructure can lead to a conclusion about the invasive potential of these malignant cells.