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Abstract Details
Metallothionein immunohistochemistry has high sensitivity and specificity for detection of Wilson disease
Mod Pathol. 2022 Jul;35(7):946-955. doi: 10.1038/s41379-021-01001-7. Epub 2021 Dec 21.
1Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Division of Anatomic Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
2Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
3Institute of Bioinformatics, International Technology Park, Bangalore, 560066, Karnataka, India.
4Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, 576104, Karnataka, India.
5Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
6Department of Pathology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
7Department of Pathology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
8Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Division of Anatomic Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. graham.rondell@mayo.edu.
Abstract
Diagnosis of Wilson disease (WD) can be difficult because of its protean clinical presentations, but early diagnosis is important because effective treatment is available and can prevent disease progression. Similarly, diagnosis of WD on liver biopsy specimens is difficult due to the wide range of histologic appearances. A stain that could help identify WD patients would be of great value. The goal of this study was to use mass spectrometry-based proteomics to identify potential proteins that are differentially expressed in WD compared to controls, and could serve as potential immunohistochemical markers for screening. Several proteins were differentially expressed in WD and immunohistochemical stains for two (metallothionein (MT) and cytochrome C oxidase copper chaperone (COX17)) were tested and compared to other methods of diagnosis in WD including copper staining and quantitative copper assays. We found diffuse metallothionein immunoreactivity in all liver specimens from patients with WD (n = 20); the intensity of the staining was moderate to strong. This staining pattern was distinct from that seen in specimens from the control groups (none of which showed strong, diffuse staining), which included diseases that may be in the clinical or histologic differential of WD (steatohepatitis (n = 51), chronic viral hepatitis (n = 40), autoimmune hepatitis (n = 50), chronic biliary tract disease (n = 42), and normal liver (n = 20)). COX17 immunostain showed no significant difference in expression between the WD and control groups. MT had higher sensitivity than rhodanine for diagnosis of WD. While the quantitative liver copper assays also had high sensitivity, they require more tissue, have a higher cost, longer turnaround time, and are less widely available than an immunohistochemical stain. We conclude that MT IHC is a sensitive immunohistochemical stain for the diagnosis of WD that could be widely deployed as a screening tool for liver biopsies in which WD is in the clinical or histologic differential diagnosis.