Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.3.16 (calcineurin)
 17,112 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Calcineurin is one of the calmodulin binding proteins and a Ca2+-dependent and calmodulin-stimulated phosphoprotein phosphatase. We used antisera to the calcineurin as a cell-type-specific marker in order to identify neuronal cells in the rat brain and human neoplasms. In normal rat brain slices, basal ganglia were stained macroscopically, and other areas such as cerebral cortex, corpus callosum, cerebellar cortex, granular layer and pyramidal tract of the spinal cord were lightly identified as well. Under the light microscope, it was found that only the neuronal cells were stained, and astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells and vessels were not. Intracellular distribution of the staining showed various patterns and staining intensity of varying degree. Using the PAP method, localization of the calcineurin in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues were studied in 65 human intracranial neoplasms, and in 11 human extracranial neoplasms. The neuronal elements of neuroblastoma, ganglioglioma, ganglioneuroma and retinoblastoma were clearly stained. In contrast, glioblastoma, astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma, ependymoma, meningioma, neurinoma, pituitary adenoma, craniopharyngioma, hemangioblastoma, hamartoma, lymphoma and mesenchymal tumor were all negative. Two cases out of 5 medulloblastomas were stained, but others were not. Although positive tumors disclosed various staining patterns and intensities, these results indicated that calcineurin could be a new neuronal marker in human brain tumors.
 ...
PMID:Calcineurin as a neuronal marker of human brain tumors. 242 51

The present immunochemical study concerns the distribution of calcineurin (CaN), a Ca2+/calmodulin-regulated protein phosphatase, in the nervous and neuroendocrine systems of mammals, and discloses the CaN-immunostaining results of human neoplasms. CaN immunoreactivity (ir) was present throughout the nervous system with a marked regional variation in strength of the staining intensity. Light microscopic observations showed that CaN-ir was localized in neurons, but was not detected in non-neuronal cells including astrocytes. Ultrastructural study also revealed that CaN-ir was present only in neuronal elements such as somata, dendrites including postsynaptic densities and spines, and nerve terminals. CaN-ir was also detected in neuroendocrine cells of some endocrine tissues including the pineal gland, pituitary gland, adrenal grand, pancreas and thyroid gland. Immunostaining results of 107 surgical specimens of human neoplasms, including 9 cases of peripheral tumors, disclosed that CaN-immunopositive tumor cells were found to be present in the neuronal tumors including neuroblastomas, ganglioglioma, ganglioneuroma, ganglioneuroblastoma, retinoblastomas, medulloblastomas and central neurocytomas. Also, some neuroendocrine tumors, such as pineocytomas, olfactory neuroblastomas and paragangliomas, specifically reacted for anti-CaN antibody. On the basis of these immunochemical findings, we have proposed that CaN can be a marker protein for detection of neuronal and neuroendocrine tumor cells in the diagnostic pathology of human neoplasms.
 ...
PMID:Immunostaining for calcineurin, a Ca2+/calmodulin-regulated protein phosphatase, in the diagnostic tumor pathology. 779 26