Poster Presentation 22nd Annual Lorne Proteomics Symposium 2017

MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging Reveals Different Proteomics Patterns between Vulvar Cancer With and Without Lymph Node Metastasis (#203)

Chao Zhang 1 , Georgia Arentz 1 , Lyron Winderbaum 1 , Parul Mittal 1 , Noor Alia Lokman 1 , Manuela Klingler-Hoffmann 1 , Martin Oehler 2 , Peter Hoffmann 1
  1. University of Adelaide, Adelaide, S.A., Australia
  2. Obstetrics and Gynaecology , University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Vulvar cancer is the fourth most common gynecological cancer worldwide. However, limited studies have been completed on the molecular characterization of vulvar squamous cell carcinoma resulting in a poor understanding of the disease initiation and progression. Analysis and early detection of the precursor lesion of HPV-independent vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC), differentiated vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (dVIN), is of great importance given dVIN lesions have a high level of malignant potential. Here we present an examination of adjacent normal vulvar epithelium, dVIN, and VSCC from vulvar cancer patients by peptide Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MALDI-MSI). The results reveal the differential expression of multiple peptides from the protein cytokeratin 5 (CK5) and other cytoskeletal proteins across the three vulvar tissue types. The difference observed in the relative abundance of CK5 by MALDI-MSI between the healthy epithelium, dVIN, and VSCC was further analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in tissue from eight VSCC patients. A decrease in CK5 immunostaining was observed in the VSCC compared to the healthy epithelium and dVIN. These results provide an insight into the molecular fingerprint of the vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia that appears to be more closely related to the healthy epithelium than the VSCC.