MNF-116

This antibody works on formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded tissue. It detects an epitope common to many cytokeratins (Moll's numbers 5, 6, 8, 17 and probably 191).

Immunohistochemical expression

• Epithelia, including stratified squamous and simple glandular

• Smooth muscle

• Dendritic cells of lymph nodes

• Syncytiotrophoblast

• Some cortical neurons

• Plasma cells

• Carcinomas, including

  • squamous

  • nasopharnyngeal

  • small cell, with a dot-like pattern of paranuclear enhancement

  • sarcomatoid / spindle cell

  • adenocarcinoma

• Mesothelioma, both epithelial and sarcomatoid

• Synovial sarcoma (the spindle cell component shows focal staining)

• Vascular tumours

  • haemangioendothelioma

  • sinonasal haemangiopericytoma

  • epithelioid angiosarcoma

• Chordoma

• Extrarenal rhabdoid tumour

• Myoepithelioma

• Yolk sac tumour

• Smooth muscle tumour

• Plasmacytoma

• Desmoplastic small round cell tumour

• Primitive neuroectodermal tumour (occasionally focally positive)

Diagnostic utility

• Useful as a first line marker for epithelial tumours, with the limitations imposed by the wide range of other tumours which may be positive, as listed above.

• MNF116 positivity in fibrous cells is reported to be more frequent in mesothelioma than in adenocarcinoma:

References

1Dako catalogue 2000/2001

2Brockstedt U, Gulyas M, Dobra K. An optimized batter of eight antibodies that can distinguish most cases of epithelial mesothelioma form adenocarcinoma. Am J Clin Pathol 2000;114:203-9.

©SMUHT/PW Bishop