D. TAMIOLAKIS*, M. MENEGAKI** , S. NIKOLAIDOU*, E. PAPADOPOULOS**, S. BOLIOTI*, P. PAVLIDIS**, A. TZILIVAKI*, N. PAPADOPOULOS**
*Department of Cytology, General Hospital of Chania, Crete
**Department of Histology-Embryology, Democritus University of Thrace
Abstract. Objective: CD30 antigen has long been considered to be restricted to the tumour cells of Hodgkin’s disease and of anaplastic large cell lymphoma as well as to T and B activated lymphocytes. Expression of CD30 antigen has been reported in the decidual stroma, cultivated macrophages, lipoblasts, myoepithelial cells, reactive and neoplastic vascular lesions, mesotheliomas, embryonal carcinoma and seminoma cells. The fact that the CD30 molecule can mediate signals for cell proliferation or apoptosis prompted us to perform a systematic investigation of CD30 antigen expression in embryonal tissues during proliferation and differentiation stages. We first targeted on the fetal human intestinal cryptae cells with positive results. The epidermis is a dynamic epithelium that is constantly renewed throughout life. Its turnover is estimated at about 7 days in mice and about 60 days in humans. This rapid replacement demands, as with other epithelial tissues, that an adult has stem cells capable of supplying differentiated cells throughout life. The most basic widely accepted criteria for these stem cells are that they have a high capacity of self-renewal and the ability to generate daughter cells that undergo terminal differentiation. The basal layer, attached to the basement membrane, contains the dividing cells of the skin and as cells move up from this layer they undergo differentiation, ending in the formation of a terminally differentiated anucleate cell called squame. Not all of the proliferative cells in the basal layer are stem cells. It is intriguing to find out if stem or other cells in the basal layer can express the CD30 antigen. Materials and methods: We investigated the immunohistochemical expression of CD30 antigen in 15 paraffin-embedded tissue samples representing epidermis and epidermal buds from fetuses after spontaneous abortion in 8th, 10th, and 12th week of gestation, respectively, using the monoclonal antibody Ki-1. Results: The results showed that: 1) the epithelial cells of the epidermis in the developing skin express the CD30 antigen; 2) CD30 expression in these epithelial cells is higher in cases of hormonal administration than in normal gestation; 3) A similar positive reaction involved the epidermal buds associated with the development of the skin appendages.
Author’s e-mail: npapad@med.duth.gr
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