Adrenal Oncocytic Neoplasm with Paradoxical Loss of Important Mitochondrial Steroidogenic Protein: The 18 kDA Translocator Protein

Figure 2

Composite figure illustrating TSPO protein expression findings. (a) Expression of TSPO by immunofluorescence in normal adrenal gland demonstrates diffuse immunofluorescence for TSPO protein, particularly in the zona glomerulosa (IF, 10x). (b) Diffuse loss of TSPO expression assessed by immunofluorescence in adrenal oncocytic tumor cells (IF, 10x). Polyacrylamide gels of the experiments performed in duplicate including normal adrenal cortex from the patient as internal control and tumor, normalized to β-actin for cytosolic extracts (c) and lamin a/c for nuclear extracts (d) as housekeeping genes, show a noticeable decrease in the concentration of TSPO in tumor compared to the patient’s normal adrenal gland. Western blot semiquantification bar graphs demonstrate 72.4 and 72.8% decrease in cytosolic and 77.1 and 76.8% decrease in nuclear TSPO expression as compared to respective controls. IF: immunofluorescence.

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