RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To assess the expression pattern of all six Prxs in normal ovarian tissue and epithelial ovarian tumor cell using immunohistochemical staining. METHODS: Patients were retrieved from those who had undertaken operation in Obstetrics and Gynecology of our hospital from January 1995 to June 2005. According to the pathologic result, five patients were allocated randomly in each group of malignant serous, malignant mucinous, benign serous and benign mucinous ovarian tumor. And another five with normal ovarian epithelial cell were included for the comparison. Immunohistochemical staining was performed with Prx I to VI antibodies. Using microscopy, we evaluated the immunoreactivities of nucleus and cytoplasm semiquantitatively by dividing into four categories : -; no immunoactivity present, +; weak, ++; moderate, +++; strong staining. RESULTS: The immunopositivity of Prx III in cytoplasm shows weak to moderate and Prx VI moderate to strong in normal ovarian tissue. In mucinous epithelial ovarian tumor cell, cytoplasmic Prx IV shows stronger activity than in normal epithelial cell or serous tumor cell. In malignant epithelial cell, Prx V shows stronger activity in cytoplasm than normal epithelial cell. It shows characteristically granular pattern. Prx VI shows stronger activity in the nucleus of malignant epithelial cell compared to normal epithelial cell or benign tumor epithelial cell. CONCLUSION: Normal ovarian tissue showed higher affinity for Prx III and VI. In epithelial ovarian tumor, cytosolic Prx IV in mucinous tumor, cytosolic Prx V and nuclear Prx VI in malignant tumor were overexpressed.