Synaptophysin: A Marker Protein for Neuroendocrine Cells and Neoplasms

Synaptophysin is an integral membrane glycoprotein (Mr 38,000) that occurs in presynaptic vesicles of neurons and in similar vesicles of the adrenal medulla. By using a monoclonal antibody to this protein (SY38), we have found, by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting, that an identical or similar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 1986-05, Vol.83 (10), p.3500-3504
Main Authors: Wiedenmann, Bertram, Franke, Werner W., Kuhn, Caecilia, Moll, Roland, Gould, Victor E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adrenal Medulla - metabolism
Antibodies
Antibodies, Monoclonal
Biological and medical sciences
Cell physiology
Cell transformation and carcinogenesis. Action of oncogenes and antioncogenes
Desmoplakins
Endocrine Glands - metabolism
Epithelial cells
Epithelium - metabolism
Fluorescent Antibody Technique
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Immunosorbent Techniques
Islet cell adenoma
Islets of Langerhans - metabolism
Keratins
Membrane Proteins - metabolism
Molecular and cellular biology
Neoplasm Proteins - metabolism
Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial - metabolism
Neoplasms, Nerve Tissue - metabolism
Nerve Tissue Proteins - metabolism
Neuroendocrine carcinoma
Neurons
PC12 cells
Synaptic Vesicles - metabolism
Synaptophysin
Thyroid cancer
Tissue Distribution
Tumors
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Description
Summary:Synaptophysin is an integral membrane glycoprotein (Mr 38,000) that occurs in presynaptic vesicles of neurons and in similar vesicles of the adrenal medulla. By using a monoclonal antibody to this protein (SY38), we have found, by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting, that an identical or similar protein is also expressed in neuroendocrine tumors of neural type, such as pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas. In addition, this protein occurs in certain neuroendocrine epithelial cells, such as pancreatic islet cells; in a variety of neuroendocrine epithelial tumors, including islet-cell adenomas and carcinomas and several carcinoids and neuroendocrine carcinomas of the gastrointestinal and the bronchial tracts; and in medullary carcinomas of the thyroid. Our results show that synaptophysin, and the vesicles that contain it, can occur in normal and neoplastic neuroendocrine cells of neural type, as demonstrated by colocalization with neurofilaments, as well as in those of epithelial type, as shown by colocalization with cytokeratin filaments and desmoplakins. We conclude that synaptophysin is expressed independently of other neuronal differentiation markers and propose that it be used as a differentiation marker in tumor diagnosis.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.83.10.3500