The relationship between CD40 and lymph node metastasis on lung adenocarcinomas by using immunohistochemical staining.

Abstract

CD40 is a member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor superfamily of molecules and is known to play an important role in normal dendritic cell and B-cell maturation. However, the function of CD40 in malignant neoplasms, especially solid tumors, remains largely unknown. We previously reported CD40-CD40L stimulation had the anti-tumor effect in non-small cell lung cancer cell lines which expressed CD40 on their surface in vitro study. Detection of CD40 expression of the tumor cell is usually examined by FACS, not by immunohistochemical staining (IHC). As far as we know, IHC of CD40 has not been reported yet. Therefore, if IHC of CD40 could be examined from paraffin embedded specimens, the role of CD40 in malignant tumors might become clear from the clinicopathological findings. CD40 expression could be detected by IHC from the paraffin embedded specimens of lung adenocarcinomas. We observed enhanced IHC of CD40 in all specimens of N2 cases, in contrast none of N0 cases was expressed. CD40 expression rate was much higher in N2 cases than N0 cases from our experiment. Thus, CD40 may play an important role in lymph node metastasis in lung cancer. Further investigations are required to clarify the mechanism of CD40 on lung cancer.