Subcellular expression of maspin – from normal tissue to tumor cells

Table 1 Maspin expression in placenta, mammary gland, and urogenital organs

Organ/ tissue	Subcellular expression in normal tissue	Subcellular expression in pathologic conditions
Placenta	Cytoplasm: Syncytio- and cytotrophoblasts, and endothelial cells; Nucleus: Chorionic plate	Preeclampsia: Upregulation
Mammary gland	Cytoplasm: Myoepithelial cells (intense in pregnancy and lactation); Nucleus: Myoepithelial cells	Invasive breast cancer: Maspin positivity is more frequent in ductal than lobular carcinomas; Cytoplasm only: Negative prognostic indicator, ER and PgR negativity; Nucleus: Better prognosis, ER and PgR positivity; Negativity: Loss or cytoplasm to nuclear translocation in metastatic tissue
Ovary	Negative	Benign tumors: Negative or infrequent nuclear; Ovarian carcinomas: Cytoplasm only: Cisplatin sensitivity; Mixed expression (cytoplasm and nucleus): Indicator of low malignant potential
Uterine cervix	Squamous epithelium: Cytoplasmic and nuclear staining	CIN3: Cytoplasm: Down regulation; Nucleus: Upregulation; Squamous cell carcinoma: Cytoplasm: Tumor suppressor role; Adenocarcinoma: Cytoplasm: Aggressive behavior
Uterine body	Negative or positive (mostly nuclear) staining in normal endometrial glands; Low intensity in atrophic endometrium	Endometrial hyperplasia: Nucleus: Indicator of atypia; Endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma: Cytoplasm: Aggressive behavior; Nucleus: Better prognosis
Prostate	Basal cells: Positive; Secretory cells: Negative	HGPIN: Basal cells: Positive (same intensity as normal); Secretory cells: Positive; Adenocarcinoma: Low-grade carcinoma: Reduced expression compared with HGPIN; High-grade carcinoma: Low or no expression
Urinary bladder	Positive in epithelial cells	Urothelial carcinoma: Nucleus: Better prognosis

CIN: Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia; ER: Estrogen receptor; HGPIN: High-grade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia; PgR: Progesterone receptor.