SOX6 Expression Is Sensitive for Peritoneal Epithelioid Malignant Mesothelioma, But Not Specific in the Differential Diagnosis With Tubo-ovarian Serous Neoplasia.

Primary peritoneal malignant mesothelioma (MM) can demonstrate morphologic overlap with low-grade and high-grade tubo-ovarian serous neoplasms; it is also biologically and prognostically distinct from benign mesothelial proliferations. Currently, there is no single biomarker that can definitively distinguish these neoplasms. Sex-determining region Y box 6 (SOX6) immunohistochemistry has been recently described to differentiate pleural epithelioid MM from lung adenocarcinoma, but it has not been evaluated in the peritoneum. SOX6 immunohistochemistry was performed on 43 peritoneal epithelioid MM, 7 peritoneal biphasic MM, 5 well-differentiated papillary mesotheliomas, 5 serous borderline tumors, 29 low-grade serous carcinomas (LGSCs), 20 high-grade serous carcinomas (HGSCs), and 25 cases of peritoneal reactive mesothelial hyperplasia. Quantitative SOX6 expression in epithelioid MM (median, 100% of tumor cells) was significantly greater than in LGSC/serous borderline tumor (median, 90%; P=0.004) and HGSC (median, 45%; P=0.0001). However, when SOX6 is expression is defined as ≥10% of tumor cells, there was no significant difference in the rate of SOX6 positivity between epithelioid MM (41/43, 95%), LGSC (28/29, 97%; P=1.0), and HGSC (17/20, 85%; P=0.16). Quantitative extent of SOX6 expression in epithelioid MM was significantly greater than in biphasic MM (median, 0%; P=0.0001), well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma (median, 20%; P=0.001), and reactive mesothelial hyperplasia (median, 20%; P=0.0001), but not significantly different from flat quiescent mesothelium (median, 90%; P=0.82). SOX6 immunohistochemistry is 95% sensitive for peritoneal epithelioid MM, but is also consistently expressed in LGSC and HGSC, negating its usefulness in this common differential diagnosis. SOX6 also shows variable expression across the spectrum of reactive, benign neoplastic, and malignant mesothelial lesions of the peritoneum, and does not appear to be diagnostically useful in distinguishing benign from malignant mesothelial proliferations.

Utility of SOX6 and DAB2 for the Diagnosis of Malignant Mesothelioma.

The separation of malignant mesothelioma from non-small cell lung carcinomas can be a difficult problem. Sex-determining region Y box 6 (SOX6) and disabled homolog 2 (DAB2) have recently been proposed as sensitive/specific markers of mesothelial lineage, but have not yet been independently tested for utility in mesothelioma diagnosis. Using tissue microarrays containing mesotheliomas (epithelioid: n=40, sarcomatoid: n=23) and non-small cell lung carcinomas (adenocarcinoma: n=52, squamous cell carcinoma: n=57, large cell carcinoma: n=12) we evaluated the performance of SOX6 and DAB2 by themselves, in conjunction with other established mesothelioma markers (calretinin, WT1, D2-40, CK5/6, HEG1) and combined with 3 broad-spectrum established carcinoma markers: claudin-4, MOC31, and BerEP4. For epithelioid mesothelioma, SOX6 and DAB2 had sensitivities of 85% and 98%, respectively. For sarcomatoid mesothelioma, SOX6 had a sensitivity of 13% and DAB2 could not be assessed due to background stromal staining. For SOX6 alone, specificity for mesothelioma versus adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and large cell carcinoma was 94%, 79%, and 92%, respectively, while for DAB2 specificity was 77%, 86%, and 67%. Combinations of SOX6 and established mesothelioma markers produced sensitivities of 95% or greater. A combination of SOX6 positive/claudin-4 negative staining was 95% to 100% specific for mesothelioma versus carcinoma with a sensitivity of 85%. SOX6 is a promising marker for the diagnosis of mesothelioma and potentially could be combined with other mesothelial markers or a broad-spectrum carcinoma marker to reach an accurate diagnosis with relatively few immunostains, The relatively low specificity and difficulty of interpreting DAB2 staining limits its utility for mesothelioma diagnosis.

SOX6 is a Novel Immunohistochemical Marker for Differential Diagnosis of Epithelioid Mesothelioma From Lung Adenocarcinoma.

The differential diagnosis of epithelioid mesothelioma from lung adenocarcinoma using immunohistochemistry is improving. However, immunohistochemical markers with high sensitivity and specificity have yet to be identified. In this study, we investigated the utility of sex-determining region Y box 6 (SOX6) as a novel immunohistochemical marker, identified by analyzing previous gene expression data. Immunohistochemically, SOX6 expression was present in 53 of 54 (98%) cases of epithelioid mesothelioma, compared with its expression in only 5 of 69 (7%) cases of lung adenocarcinoma. The sensitivity and specificity of SOX6 expression for differentiating epithelioid mesothelioma and lung adenocarcinoma were 98% and 93%, respectively. SOX6 expression showed similar sensitivity and far better specificity than those of calretinin or podoplanin (D2-40). In addition, SOX6 expression was more sensitive than Wilms' tumor 1 expression. The combination of SOX6 with other markers showed comparable or better sensitivity and specificity relative to other combinations. In particular, the sensitivity of positivity for both SOX6 and calretinin (96%) and the specificity of positivity for both SOX6 and Wilms' tumor 1 (93%) were higher than those of the other combinations. In conclusion, SOX6 is a novel candidate immunohistochemical marker for differentiating epithelioid mesothelioma from lung adenocarcinoma.

Acute phosphate restriction leads to impaired fracture healing and resistance to BMP-2.

Hypophosphatemia leads to rickets and osteomalacia, the latter of which results in decreased biomechanical integrity of bones, accompanied by poor fracture healing. Impaired phosphate-dependent apoptosis of hypertrophic chondrocytes is the molecular basis for rickets. However, the underlying pathophysiology of impaired fracture healing has not been characterized previously. To address the role of phosphate in fracture repair, mice were placed on a phosphate-restricted diet 2 days prior to or 3 days after induction of a mid-diaphyseal femoral fracture to assess the effects of phosphate deficiency on the initial recruitment of mesenchymal stem cells and their subsequent differentiation. Histologic and micro-computed tomographic (microCT) analyses demonstrated that both phosphate restriction models dramatically impaired fracture healing primarily owing to a defect in differentiation along the chondrogenic lineage. Based on Sox9 and Sox5 mRNA levels, neither the initial recruitment of cells to the callus nor their lineage commitment was effected by hypophosphatemia. However, differentiation of these cells was impaired in association with impaired bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling. In vivo ectopic bone-formation assays and in vitro investigations in ST2 stromal cells confirmed that phosphate restriction leads to BMP-2 resistance. Marrow ablation studies demonstrate that hypophosphatemia has different effects on injury-induced intramembranous bone formation compared with endochondral bone formation. Thus phosphate plays an important role in the skeleton that extends beyond mineralized matrix formation and growth plate maturation and is critical for endochondral bone repair.