Morphological analysis of papillary thyroid carcinoma with psammoma bodies

Abstract

Background & Objective: During last decade, the proportion of thyroid cancer, among other types of cancer had a clear tendency to rise. Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common cancer of this organ, constituting up to ca. 70% cases. For the majority of patients the general survival rate depends on the histological features of the tumour and on many other predictors, one of which is pathological biomineralization. The aim of the work is to carry out morphological analysis of the tissues papillary thyroid carcinoma with psammoma bodies. Method: We have analysed the samples from 54 PTC patients and controls by using immunohistochemistry and spectroscopic techniques. The samples were divided into two groups: the PTC group included 24 cases of PTC with psammoma bodies and the control group was constituted of 30 PTC cases without psammoma bodies and other manifestations of pathological biomineralization. Results: We have demonstrated the clear colocalization of osteopontin and calprotectin in the psammoma bodies and suggested the model for their laminated structure development. Immunostaining with of activated Caspase 3 antibodies revealed significantly higher number of apoptotic cells in the samples of PTC with PBs. Conclusion: We have found intensive immunostaining with osteopontin antibodies in the tumour tissues and in the tumour surrounding, which indicates that osteopontin may counteract biomineralization. We have shown that the major component of PBs is hydroxyapatite.