Molecular diversity of cytokeratins: significance for cell and tumor differentiation

Normal and transformed epithelial cells are characterized by the expression of a distinct class of intermediate filaments (IFs), the cytokeratin (CK) filaments. Their constituents, the CKs, comprise a complex multigene family of related proteins which can be subdivided into two sequence types (I and II). In the various epithelial cell types (excluding trichocytes), 19 different CK polypeptides (CKs 1-19) have been distinguished until recently. An additional cytoskeletal polypeptide of Mr 46,000 has been detected, by gel electrophoresis and by immunocytochemistry, in certain types of epithelia including gastric foveolar epithelium, small and large intestinal epithelium, urothelium, and epidermal Merkel cells. On the basis of its biochemical properties and considerable sequence homologies with several type I CKs, this new cytoskeletal protein is suggested to be included in the catalogue of human CKs as CK 20. The various CK polypeptides, as detected by gel electrophoretic and/or immunocytochemical analysis, are expressed in different epithelia and carcinomas in various combinations in a differentiation-dependent manner. Moreover, co-expressions of CKs with other IF classes (vimentin, neurofilaments, glial filaments) are also characteristic of certain epithelial differentiation lineages. Both non-neoplastic epithelial alterations as well as malignant transformation may result in similar modifications of the IF expression profiles although there is a considerable tendency of conservativity. In several instances, a reduced degree of differentiation is paralleled by an increased complexity of the IF protein pattern. CK (and IF) typing can be successfully used in the tracing of developmental lineages as well as in the histological differential diagnosis of primary and metastatic carcinomas. Certain CK polypeptides (CKs 5, 6, 14, 16, 17) identify squamous cell carcinomas including poorly differentiated ones, while other CKs, including CK 20, are typical of primary and metastatic urothelium-derived carcinomas. Among simple-epithelial tumors, CK analysis is of potential diagnostic value in the distinction of mesotheliomas from adenocarcinomas, the discrimination of different carcinomas within the gastrointestinal tract, and the distinction of certain gastrointestinal carcinomas from other adenocarcinoma types including breast and lung carcinomas. Among the individual CKs, CKs 5, 7, 13, 14, 19, and 20 appear to be particularly useful for diagnostic purposes. An important task in the future will be the development of additional monospecific CK-antibodies, particularly such which work on routine paraffin sections.