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Effect of mast cells on tumor angiogenesis in lung cancer
M Tomita1, Y Matsuzaki, T Onitsuka
1Department of Surgery II, Miyazaki Medical College, Kiyotake, Japan. mtomita@post.miyazaki-med.ac.jp
Background:
We conducted a retrospective study to clarify the effect of mast cells on tumor angiogenesis in lung cancer patients.
Methods:
Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tumor sections were used in this study. Parenchymal mast cells were stained with Alcian blue and safranin O. The number of mast cells per ten fields at a magnification of 200x was counted under light microscopy, and the average count was determined. To highlight the microvessels, endothelial cells were stained with anti-human factor VIII antibody. After the microvessel count was determined, the microvessels were further stained with Alcian blue and safranin O to show areas of mast cell infiltration. Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor was assessed using a polyclonal antibody.
Results:
We found a significant correlation between mast cell count and microvessel density. This correlation was also observed in patients with adenocarcinoma (p < 0.001) as well as in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (p < 0.01). Double staining of the microvessels showed highly angiogenic areas densely populated with mast cells. Although we detected a slight trend toward a correlation between vascular endothelial growth factor expression and microvessel density, it was not statistically significant. We found no association between vascular endothelial growth factor expression and mast cell count.
Conclusions:
There appears to be a direct correlation between the number of mast cells and tumor angiogenesis in patients with lung cancer, and this relationship appears to be independent of vascular endothelial growth factor expression.