Immunohistochemical Study of Tumor Cell-associated Plasminogen Activators and Plasminogen Activator Inhibitors in Lung Carcinomas

To compare the expression of plasminogen activators (PA) and plasminogen activator inhibitors (PAI) in normal lung mucosa and lung carcinomas. Immunohistochemical localization of urokinase-type PA (uPA), tissue-type PA (tPA), type 1 PAI (PAI-1), and type 2 PAI (PAI-2) in four normal lung biopsy specimens and in four adenocarcinomas (AC), four squamous carcinomas (SC), two large-cell carcinomas (LCC), and ten small-cell carcinomas (SCC) biopsy specimens. Qualitative immunostaining scoring system. tPA and uPA immunostaining scores from all specimens were statistically similar. The cellular staining for uPA and tPA was generally constant (normal epithelial layers, AC cells, SC cells) except for LCC cells (inconstant uPA staining, p