Clinicopathological study of role of CD34 expressions in the stroma of premalignant and malignant lesions of uterine cervix

CD34 is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is thought to be involved in the modulation of cell adhesion and signal transduction. The connective tissue stroma of virtually all human organs contain large amounts of resident CD34+ fibrocytes, which are involved in multiple functions such as wound healing, secretion of cytokines and also participate in stromal remodeling. It has been seen in various studies that absence of CD34+ fibrocytes within the stroma is associated with invasive carcinomas. In our study, we also investigated the presence and distribution of CD34+ fibrocytes in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, invasive cervical carcinoma and adjacent normal cervical stroma. It was seen that normal cervical stroma and the stroma adjacent to cervical intra epithelial lesions harbours a dense meshwork of CD34+ fibrocytes, whereas the stroma of invasive carcinoma was nearly devoid of this cell population. Early stromal invasion by squamous carcinoma was characterized by a focal loss of CD34+ fibrocytes. This can be used as a sensitive tool in detecting tiny foci of stromal invasion in early cancer. •CD34 fibrocytes are virtually present in the stromal tissue of many organs.•CD34 shows diffuse and strong immunostaining in stroma of premalignant lesions.•Loss of CD34 expression in the stroma may help as an adjunctive tool to identify early stromal invasion.