TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fuss, Carmina Teresa
A1  - Other, Katharina
A1  - Heinze, Britta
A1  - Landwehr, Laura-Sophie
A1  - Wiegering, Armin
A1  - Kalogirou, Charis
A1  - Hahner, Stefanie
A1  - Fassnacht, Martin
T1  - Expression of the chemokine receptor CCR7 in the normal adrenal gland and adrenal tumors and its correlation with clinical outcome in adrenocortical carcinoma
JF  - Cancers
N2  - Background: The chemokine receptor CCR7 is crucial for an intact immune function, but its expression is also associated with clinical outcome in several malignancies. No data exist on the expression of CCR7 in adrenocortical tumors. Methods: CCR7 expression was investigated by qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry in 4 normal adrenal glands, 59 adrenocortical adenomas, and 181 adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) samples. Results: CCR7 is highly expressed in the outer adrenocortical zones and medulla. Aldosterone-producing adenomas showed lower CCR7 protein levels (H-score 1.3 ± 1.0) compared to non-functioning (2.4 ± 0.5) and cortisol-producing adenomas (2.3 ± 0.6), whereas protein expression was variable in ACC (1.8 ± 0.8). In ACC, CCR7 protein expression was significantly higher in lymph node metastases (2.5 ± 0.5) compared to primary tumors (1.8±0.8) or distant metastases (2.0 ± 0.4; p < 0.01). mRNA levels of CCR7 were not significantly different between ACCs, normal adrenals, and adrenocortical adenomas. In contrast to other tumor entities, neither CCR7 protein nor mRNA expression significantly impacted patients' survival. Conclusion: We show that CCR7 is expressed on mRNA and protein level across normal adrenals, benign adrenocortical tumors, as well as ACCs. Given that CCR7 did not influence survival in ACC, it is probably not involved in tumor progression, but it could play a role in adrenocortical homeostasis.
KW  - CCR7
KW  - chemokine receptor
KW  - adrenocortical carcinoma
KW  - adrenal tumors
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250112
SN  - 2072-6694
VL  - 13
IS  - 22
ER  -