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Author Spotlight: Anterior HR-OCT as a Non-Invasive Tool for Characterizing Ocular Surface Squamous Neoplasia

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Desmosomal defects in acantholytic squamous cell carcinomas.

Charlene O'Shea¹, James E Fitzpatrick, Peter J Koch

¹Department of Dermatology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA; Charles C. Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA.

Journal of Cutaneous Pathology

|September 30, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Acantholytic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) involves a loss of cell adhesion. This study found that desmosomal protein loss is the likely cause of this adhesion defect in acantholytic SCC.

Keywords:

Acantholytic squamous cell carcinomas Desmocollin Desmoglein Desmoplakin Desmosomes

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Area of Science:

Dermatology
Oncology
Cell Biology

Background:

Epithelial tumors known as acantholytic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) exhibit a loss of cell adhesion between neoplastic keratinocytes.
The precise mechanism driving this loss of cell-cell adhesion in acantholytic SCC remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the loss of cell-cell adhesion in acantholytic SCC.
To determine the role of desmosomal and adherens junction proteins in acantholytic SCC pathogenesis.

Main Methods:

Retrospective analysis of 17 acantholytic SCC cases and 16 conventional SCC controls.
Utilized immunofluorescence microscopy with antibodies targeting desmosomal and adherens junction proteins.
Assessed the expression patterns of cell adhesion proteins in tumor samples.

Main Results:

A significant majority (89%) of acantholytic SCC cases displayed focal loss of at least one desmosomal cell adhesion protein.
A substantial proportion (65%) of these tumors showed a loss of expression for two or more desmosomal proteins.
Conventional SCC cases did not exhibit similar widespread loss of desmosomal protein expression.

Conclusions:

The loss of cell adhesion in acantholytic SCC is strongly associated with the focal downregulation of desmosomal proteins.
This finding offers potential mechanistic insights into the pathogenesis of acantholytic SCC.
Targeting desmosomal protein pathways may represent a therapeutic strategy for acantholytic SCC.