Article
The correlation between Connexin-43 expression and mitosis rate in common CNS tumours
Die Korrelation zwischen Connexin-43 Expression und Mitoserate in häufigen ZNS-Tumoren
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Published: | June 4, 2021 |
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Objective: Connexin-43 (Cx43) is the crucial structural element in junctional cell-to-cell communication. It was shown, that its expression reversely correlates with glioma mitosis rate. The aim of this study was to identify the expression of Cx43 in other common CNS tumors – metastases, neurinomas and meningiomas – as well as to find a potential correlation with proliferation rate.
Methods: The IHC expression of Cx43 and MiB as mitosis marker was analysed in FFPE tissue from adult patients with different CNS metastases, meningiomas and neurinomas, that were randomly selected from our biobank. Neurinomas and meningiomas were evaluated together based on their comparable non-malignant behavior.
Results: 17 metastases of different carcinomas, 7 meningiomas and 10 neurinomas were evaluated. MiB was expressed in a median of 10% of tumor cells (IqR 3 – 29), with a median of 28% (IqR 5 – 40) for metastases and 5% (IqR 1 – 11) for neurinomas and meningiomas. 7 (41%) metastases and 3 (18%) meningiomas/neurinomas showed no Cx43 expression, whereas 6 (35%) metastases and 5 (29%) meningiomas/neurinomas showed minor expression. In 4 (24%) metastases and 9 (53%) meningiomas/neurinomas, advanced expression of Cx43 could be demonstrated. The higher expression of Cx43 in meningiomas and neurinomas correlated with increased mitosis rate, r = 0.53 (p = 0.034). For metastases we could not identify a significant correlation between Cx43 and MiB.
Conclusion: The expression of Cx43 as junctional intercellular communication protein showed a significant correlation with the proliferation rate of primary intracranial tumors, but does not appear to play a role in intracranial metastases. Its role in primary intracranial CNS neoplasms is still largely unclear and mandates further investigation.