Proteintech

PAX8 antibody successes in thyroid, kidney and Mullerian system research

PAX8 (paired box gene 8 ) is a transcription factor expressed during organogenesis of the thyroid gland, kidney and Mullerian system. It is thought to regulate the expression of Wilms tumor suppressor (WT1) gene and mutations in PAX8 have been associated with Wilms tumor cells, thyroid and ovarian carcinomas. Proteintech’s PAX8 polyclonal antibody (10336-1-AP) has played a key role in many recent publications.

Immunohistochemistry on ovarian cancer tissue (under 10x lens). 10336-1-AP at 1:50 dilution

PAX8 as a biomarker for ovarian carcinomas

Nonaka et al¹ reported that PAX8 is a useful biomarker for the differential diagnosis of ovarian and breast carcinomas. Metastatic breast carcinomas are commonly found in the ovaries and can mimic primary ovarian carcinomas. Using immunohistochemistry, the authors found that PAX8 expression could be used to differentiate between the two as it was expressed in most ovarian carcinomas tested (87%) but was never found in metastatic breast carcinomas. The paper also reported that PAX8 was a superior biomarker to WT1 for the diagnosis of all types of non-mucinous ovarian carcinomas.

Kidney organogenesis and carcinomas

PAX8 has proved useful in the study of kidney organogenesis. PAX8 is expressed downstream of WNT4 and is a marker for nephron differentiation. In work published in Development, Blank et al² performed immunofluorescence with the PAX8 antibody to characterize PAX8 expression in nephrogenic zone cells of the embryonic mouse kidney.

Work published in Clinical Cancer Research found that PAX8 expression correlated with a subclass of Very Low Risk Wilms Tumor (VLRWT) specimens (Sredni et al³). In this case, the Proteintech antibody detected PAX8 by immunohistochemistry.

Serous carcinomas in fallopian tubes

Last month in The American Journal of Surgical Pathology Wei et al⁴ used the PAX8 antibody as part of the characterization of HMGA2 expression in the epithelial cells of fallopian tubes. They report HMGA2 to be a useful biomarker to complement p53 in the detection of early-stage serous carcinoma.

To order any of the antibodies mentioned or to find another antibody you need for your research, visit us at www.ptglab.com.

Antibodies:

1. PAX8 10336-1-AP (Rabbit polyclonal)
2. WT1 12609-1-AP (Rabbit polyclonal)
3. p53 10442-1-AP (Rabbit polyclonal)

References:

1. D. Nonaka et al., Am. J. Surg. Pathol. 32, 10 (2008)
2. U. Blank et al., Development 136, 21 (2009)
3. S. Sredni et al., Clin. Cancer Res. 15, 22 (2009)
4. J. Wei et al., Am. J. Surg. Pathol. 34, 1 (2010)