A comparative analysis of ESM-1 and vascular endothelial cell marker (CD34/CD105) expression on pituitary adenoma invasion

OBJECTIVE: Pituitary adenomas are benign neoplasms that display invasive behavior—a characteristic traditionally associated with malignancy—through an ill-defined mechanism. The role of angiogenesis-related molecules in this pathological condition remains perplexing. Our purpose is to assess the impact of endocan (endothelial cell specific molecule-1, ESM-1), CD34 and CD105 on pituitary adenoma invasion. METHODS: In this study, immunohistochemical analyses for endocan, CD34 and CD105 were performed on paraffin-embedded samples of 66 pituitary adenomas, five normal pituitaries, and five primary hepatic carcinomas. Knosp tumor grades based on magnetic resonance imaging coronal scanning were used to assess the invasiveness of each sample. The associations between endocan expression, CD34/CD105-positive microvessel densities (MVDs), and Knosp tumor invasion grades were evaluated. RESULTS: These results showed that endocan protein expression in tumor cells (TCs) was higher than that in endothelial cells (ECs) and strongly correlated with Knosp grades (P < 0.001, Spearman’s r = 0.616). Moreover, while endocan-positive TCs localized around the blood vessels in adenomas with higher Knosp grades, no significant association was found between CD34/CD105-MVDs and Knosp grades (CD34: P = 0.256, r = 0.142; CD105: P = 0.183, r = 0.166). Normal pituitary seemed to exhibit lower endocan expression and contained more CD34/CD105-MVDs than pituitary adenomas. CONCLUSION: Endocan expresses in both TCs and ECs of pituitary adenoma. Endocan overexpression in TCs more accurately reflects invasiveness compared to that of CD34/CD105-MVDs and that angiogenesis may not be the primary driver of endocan-medicated pituitary adenoma invasion.