Immunohistochemical detection of laminin in 98 human breast carcinomas: a light and electron microscopic study

The distribution of laminin was studied in 98 breast carcinomas with antilaminin and the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex method. Laminin was observed within vascular and epithelial basement membranes. Laminin displayed a continuous linear pattern in intraductal carcinomas, and it was heterogeneously distributed, with a discontinuous linear pattern, in invasive carcinomas. No intracellular laminin staining was detected. Electron microscopic study showed laminin immunostaining in the lamina densa of basement membranes in nonneoplastic breast tissue. In tumors, laminin immunostaining frequently revealed multilayered basement membranes and abnormal multilayered basement membranes in blood vessels in the tumor stroma. These data suggest that laminin immunostaining, as a new approach to the heterogeneous basement membrane changes occurring in carcinomas, should permit better understanding of cell diffusion processes and of stroma-tumor cell interactions. The consistent extracellular distribution of laminin in contact with the stroma indicates that the latter plays an important role in the assembly of basement membrane components.