Biomedical subjects

L G Machin

Publications and source records attributed to L G Machin.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1991

What's in a burger?

In an attempt to confirm the presence or absence of central nervous tissue in commercially prepared beefburgers, four burgers were processed and stained using routine histological laboratory techniques. Constituent parts of the burgers could be identified readily. In this small sample no central nervous tissue was found. There is currently considerable general interest in the contents of foodstuffs, particularly now that certain specified bovine offals as well as central nervous tissue have been banned from human consumption. Conventional histological techniques may be of value in analysing the ingredients of beef products.

Animals↗

PubMed1989

Expression of desmin and myoglobin in rhabdomyosarcomas and in developing skeletal muscle.

Immunohistochemical staining for desmin and myoglobin was investigated in 35 rhabdomyosarcomas from young people and in skeletal muscle from 16 human fetuses of known gestational age. Twenty-nine of the rhabdomyosarcomas expressed desmin but six undifferentiated or poorly-differentiated tumours were desmin negative. Of the desmin positive cases, most undifferentiated or poorly-differentiated sarcomas expressed desmin alone (12/35). Tumours with increasing rhabdomyoblastomic differentiation co-expressed myoglobin (9/35) and well-differentiated examples also contained cross-striations (7/35). Skeletal muscle from fetuses aged 8 weeks or less consisted mainly of primitive desmin negative round cells. As the cells began to differentiate they quickly expressed desmin and, at approximately 10 weeks, myoglobin was expressed and cross-striations were seen. The combined results strengthen the view that desmin (within a strictly defined context of round cell tumours in young people) is a reliable marker for rhabdomyoblastic differentiation. Support is also given to the notion that very primitive rhabdomyosarcomas may be desmin-negative, although the difficulties of establishing firm diagnoses for some of these tumours is emphasized.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1988

Immunohistochemical distribution of c-erbB-2 in infiltrating and in situ breast cancer.

An immunohistochemical study of c-erbB-2 expression was performed on invasive and in situ breast cancer. Strong membrane staining was seen in 16% of the infiltrating ductal carcinomas and 44% of the in situ lesions. c-erbB-2 was overexpressed in ductal rather than lobular tumours. Our results indicate that a small sub-group of breast carcinomas are associated with over-expression of this oncogene which may define an important subgroup of in situ and infiltrating ductal carcinomas.

Breast Neoplasms↗

PubMed1988

c-erbB-2 expression in benign and malignant breast disease.

An antibody, 21N, raised against a synthetic peptide from the predicted sequence of the c-erbB-2 protein has been used immunocytochemically in a retrospective study of formalin fixed paraffin embedded breast biopsies. Fourteen out of 103 infiltrating ductal carcinomas exhibited positive membrane staining. Fifty-four of these tumours had lymph node involvement of which nine contained stained cells. These were all cases where the primary tumour was positive. In this series there was no correlation between c-erbB-2 overexpression and lymph node status. In five of the positive cases studied there was an associated in situ component which was also positively stained. Ten out of 24 pure intraduct carcinomas showed membrane staining, but none of the 149 benign conditions studied, which included 22 radial scars and 13 cases of atypical ductal proliferation, demonstrated the pattern of staining associated with overexpression. It is concluded that the c-erbB-2 protein is overexpressed in a minority (approximately 14%) of infiltrating ductal carcinomas and only in cells that are cytologically malignant. Overexpression of c-erbB-2 is considered in relation to pathogenesis.

Breast Neoplasms↗