Immunohistochemical expression of metallothionein in normal human colorectal mucosa, in adenomas and in adenocarcinomas and their associated metastases

The immunohistochemial distribution pattern of metallothionein, a low molecular weight protein with strong affinity for divalent heavy metal ions, has been investigated in normal and neoplastic conditions of the large bowel. Utilizing a monoclonal mouse antibody the following formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded surgical or biopsy samples were studied: tubulo‐villous adenomas (8 cases); adenocarcinomas with various degree of differentiation (85), nine of which were mucinous‐type; synchronous tubular or tubulo‐villous adenomas separate from carcinomas (30); transitional mucosa (45); metastases in lymph nodes (43); and distant metastases (45). Twenty biopsies from the right and left colon of 10 patients affected by irritable bowel syndrome were also analyzed. Normal colonic mucosa as well as transitional mucosa showed metallothionein immunopositivity in enterocytes at the luminal surface and crypts. Evident nuclear and cytoplasmic staining was encountered in tubulo‐villous adenomas; the same reactivity was noted in the basal glandular component of colorectal carcinomas‐synchronous adenomas, while less intense staining was noted in the apical villous portions. A variable metallothionein immunostaining was observed in adenocarcinomas (62.3%), in lymph node (55.8%) and distant hepatic (17.2%) and omental (43.8%) metastases, although it was not always concordant with that reported in the corresponding primary tumour. Whether the metallothionein positivity observed in normal and neoplastic cells is the result of expression of a stable form of the protein or an accumulation in the nucleus and cytoplasm remains to be clarified.