Epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) or MUC1 expression in...

ActionsCite Favorites Display options Display options Format 1 Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 1 Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) or MUC1 belongs to a heterogeneous group of heavily glycosylated proteins and is expressed in most normal and epithelial neoplastic cells. EMA is also expressed in plasma cells, anaplastic large cell lymphoma (Ki-1 antigen), malignant histiocytosis and erythroleukaemia. In 1996, Cheong et al. (Hematology 1996; 1: 223) demonstrated the positive expression of EMA in monoblasts. Since there were very few useful markers for differentiating subtypes of acute myeloid leukaemia with a monocytic component from the those without, a study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of EMA expression and its relationship with known markers for monocytic-macrophage lineage (CD11c, CD14 and intracellular CD68) in monocytes and monoblasts. EMA detection was performed by flow cytometry in monocytes and monoblasts. EMA expression was compared with other known markers of monocytic-macrophage lineage (CD11c, CD14 and intracellular CD68). Samples of purified monocytes were obtained from 20 healthy volunteers. Twenty-two cases of monocytic AML (M4 and M5) were studied and controls were selected from 20 cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and 18 cases of non-monocytic AML (M0, M1, M2, M3, and M7). EMA was shown to be expressed strongly on the surface of all purified monocytes. EMA expression was observed on blast cells in 18/22 (81.8%) cases of AML M4 and M5, but not in that of non-monocytic AML or ALL. In this study EMA monoclonal antibody has demonstrated a strong association (P 0.001) with all the other known markers of monocytic-macrophage lineage in acute leukaemia subtypes. EMA had also shown 100% specificity and 81.8% sensitivity in the diagnosis of AML M4 and M5. The monoclonal antibody EMA (clone E29) is a useful marker in the classification of acute myeloid leukaemia and can be used as a supplementary analysis for the diagnosis of acute leukemia with monocytic involvement. da Fonseca LM, Brunetti IL, Campa A, Catalani LH, Calado RT, Falcão RP. da Fonseca LM, et al. Hematol J. 2003;4(1):26-30. doi: 10.1038/sj.thj.6200209. Hematol J. 2003. PMID: 12692517 Dunphy CH, et al. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2007 May;131(5):748-54. doi: 10.5858/2007-131-748-TVOCEI. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2007. PMID: 17488160 Matarraz S, Almeida J, Flores-Montero J, Lécrevisse Q, Guerri V, López A, Bárrena S, Van Der Velden VHJ, Te Marvelde JG, Van Dongen JJM, Orfao A. Matarraz S, et al. Cytometry B Clin Cytom. 2017 May;92(3):218-227. doi: 10.1002/cyto.b.21219. Epub 2015 Aug 18. Cytometry B Clin Cytom. 2017. PMID: 26282340 Martinez-Carrasco R, et al. Ocul Surf. 2021 Jul;21:313-330. doi: 10.1016/j.jtos.2021.03.003. Epub 2021 Mar 26. Ocul Surf. 2021. PMID: 33775913 Brum AM, van der Leije CS, Schreuders-Koedam M, Chaibi S, van Leeuwen JP, van der Eerden BC. Brum AM, et al. JBMR Plus. 2018 Jul 14;2(6):341-350. doi: 10.1002/jbm4.10061. eCollection 2018 Nov. JBMR Plus. 2018. PMID: 30460337 Free PMC article. Al-Bataineh MM, et al. Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens. 2017 Sep;26(5):384-391. doi: 10.1097/MNH.0000000000000350. Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens. 2017. PMID: 28622163 Free PMC article. Review. Dhawan I, et al. J Oral Maxillofac Pathol. 2016 Sep-Dec;20(3):436-444. doi: 10.4103/0973-029X.190946. J Oral Maxillofac Pathol. 2016. PMID: 27721609 Free PMC article.