Figure 5

Impairment of laminin deposition at basement membrane with loss of KAP3 expression in SRCC. (A) Immunohistochemistry of laminin in clinical samples of SRCC and tubular adenocarcinoma of the stomach. Arrowheads indicate laminin at basement membranes. Asterisks indicate cells of SRCC. Staining seen in SRCC is interstitial tissue. Original magnification, ×200. (B) Semi-quantitative analysis of laminin expression in the three histological types of primary GC, which include tubular adenocarcinoma (tub; n = 21), poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (por; n = 22), and signet-ring cell carcinoma (sig; n = 9). The middle line is median, upper and lower ends of box are 75th and 25th percentiles, and whiskers are maximum and minimum values. “X” indicates the mean value. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01. IHC immunohistochemistry. (C–E) H&E and immunohistochemical staining of KAP3 and laminin in the normal gastric mucosa (C) and in an early gastric cancer of SRCC limited to the mucosa (D). Dotted circles indicate foci of SRCC. Original magnification, ×40. (E) Magnified view of the square area in the H&E-stained section of SRCC shown in (D). Note that separate (non-adjacent) sections were used for H&E and immunohistochemical staining of KAP3 and laminin (because the original specimens were sectioned multiple times for use in various pathological diagnoses and studies).