Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0027960 (mole)
 21,279 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This is a descriptive screening of 46 examples of childhood histiocytic lesions and some of their look-alikes using a monoclonal antibody, p55, to fascin. Fascin, an actin-bundling protein, identifies dendritic cells in the blood and in tissues. Our aim was to test the diagnostic utility of the antibody in various lesions at different sites and to see whether the staining patterns give insight into the cell types involved. Fascin intensely stained the cells of juvenile xanthogranulomas (JXG), Rosai-Dorfman lesions, and soft tissue dendrocytomas. Normal Langerhans' cells and the cells of Langerhans' cell histiocytosis were unreactive. Their lack of fascin staining may be relevant to fascin being maturation as well as lineage related. Epithelioid and palisading granulomas were unstained, though an example of Kikuchi lymphadenitis had large numbers of dendritic-type cells that stained strongly. A reticulohistiocytoma of the skin was also unstained and look-alike lesions, Spitz nevi, and mast cell lesions did not stain. Two of three large-cell lymphomas (both CD30+) also had fascin reactivity. Even though fascin is not specific to dendritic cells, staining other cell types as well (false positive), and not entirely sensitive, dendritic cells such as tissue Langerhans' cells are unstained (false negative), there seems to be a consistency of staining in childhood histiocytic lesions. This may be of diagnostic use when read in the context of the tissue differential diagnosis. Whether fascin can serve as a marker for the dendritic cell lineage, or at least for some phases of dendritic cell lifecycle, is not answered by this survey.
 ...
PMID:Fascin and the differential diagnosis of childhood histiocytic lesions. 1046 81

Dynacortin is a novel protein that was discovered in a genetic suppressor screen of a Dictyostelium discoideum cytokinesis-deficient mutant cell line devoid of the cleavage furrow actin bundling protein, cortexillin I. While dynacortin is highly enriched in the cortex, particularly in cell-surface protrusions, it is excluded from the cleavage furrow cortex during cytokinesis. Here, we describe the biochemical characterization of this new protein. Purified dynacortin is an 80-kDa dimer with a large 5.7-nm Stokes radius. Dynacortin cross-links actin filaments into parallel arrays with a mole ratio of one dimer to 1.3 actin monomers and a 3.1 microm K(d). Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, GFP-dynacortin and the actin bundling protein coronin-GFP are seen to concentrate in highly dynamic cortical structures with assembly and disassembly half-lives of about 15 s. These results indicate that cells have evolved different actin-filament cross-linking proteins with complementary cellular distributions that collaborate to orchestrate complex cell shape changes.
 ...
PMID:Dynacortin is a novel actin bundling protein that localizes to dynamic actin structures. 1178 90

Fascin is a globular actin cross-linking protein that is important in carcinogenesis. It shows differential staining in various tumors, dependent on grade and stage. The purpose of this study was to compare fascin expression in benign, dysplastic and malignant (metastatic and non-metastatic) melanocytic lesions of the skin, and also to investigate the potential role of fascin in their differential diagnosis. Fascin expression was investigated through the immunohistochemistry of paraffin-embedded tissue in 73 cases of melanocytic lesions of the skin, including 20 benign nevi, 12 dysplastic nevi, 4 lentigo malignas, 25 malignant melanomas and 12 metastatic melanomas. The cases were scored on the basis of staining extension (from 0 to 4) and intensity (from 1 to 3), and were assigned a combined score. Fascin expression was present in 19/20 (95%) benign nevi, 8/12 (67%) dysplastic nevi, 1/4 (25%) lentigo malignas, 7/25 (28%) malignant melanomas and 3/12 (25%) metastatic melanomas. There was significantly less frequent expression of fascin in malignant melanoma than in benign nevi (p < 0.001) and dysplastic nevi (p = 0.036). The results of this study indicate that differential fascin expression exists between benign nevi and malignant melanomas. Fascin can therefore serve as a reliable immunohistochemical marker in distinguishing malignant melanomas from melanocytic nevi and dysplastic nevi, and it may be used with histological criteria for differential diagnosis.
 ...
PMID:Fascin expression in melanocytic lesions of the skin. 1952 87

Distinct genetic aberrations between melanomas in different anatomical locations have been confirmed in recent years. However, the associations between immunohistochemical expression, tumor sites, and clinical parameters are not clear. We examined the correlation of protein expression of fascin, cortactin and survivin with clinicopathological parameters and lesion locations in patients with cutaneous melanoma. We collected 170 melanocytic lesions, including 106 cutaneous malignant melanoma (MM) from acral (AM) and non-acral (NAM) sites, 24 dysplastic nevi (DN), and 40 common melanocytic nevi (CMN). Tissue micro arrays were constructed and immunohistochemical expression for cortactin, fascin, and survivin was assessed with correlation with clinical parameters. Cytoplasmic immunostaining for fascin was found to be significantly higher in CMN than DN, and survivin staining was significantly higher in DN than MM. Positive nuclear immunoreactivity for survivin was seen in a large subset of melanomas but much less frequently in CMN and DN. In addition, nuclear survivin immunoreactivity was significantly more common in NAM than in AM. Nuclear survivin staining in patients with NAM was significantly correlated with poor survival. The significantly different expression of immunoreactivities (nuclear survivin) between AM and NAM and the different mortality risks of melanomas on acral versus non-acral sites might change site-specific therapeutic concepts in melanoma.
 ...
PMID:Fascin, cortactin and survivin expression of melanocytic neoplasms and association with clinicopathological parameters and anatomic locations in Chinese people. 2040 Mar 86