Expression of Thy‐1 antigen on human melanoma cells

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Abstract
The expression of Thy‐1 was examined on fresh frozen sections of melanoma and control skin lesions using a monoclonal antibody to Thy‐1 and immunoperoxidase‐labelled second antibodies. Thy‐1 was detected on 12 of 19 primary melanomas but on only 1 of 23 melanoma metastases in lymph nodes, skin or brain. Expression of Thy‐1 did not appear related to other known histological features of primary melanoma. Thy‐1 was also expressed on 2 of 7 naevi but not on normal melanocytes or carcinoma of squamous cells, basal cells and sweat glands of the skin. Some lymphocytes below primary melanomas were Thy‐1 positive. These results suggest that Thy‐1 may be a marker of melanocytes at certain stages of differentiation analogous to its expression on cell lineages in the haemopoietic system. The relative paucity of Thy‐1 on metastases may indicate that its expression on melanoma cells has prognostic significance for behaviour of the tumour in its host.