The nuclear lamina
protein,
Lamin A and inner nuclear membrane
protein,
emerin participate in maintaining nuclear morphology. However, their correlations with the nuclear shape in the four representative
ovarian epithelial cancer subtypes, high-grade serous
carcinoma (HGSCa), clear cell
carcinoma (CCCa),
endometrioid carcinoma (
EMCa) and
mucinous carcinoma (MUCa), remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the association between nuclear morphology and nuclear membrane
protein expression in four histological subtypes of
ovarian epithelial cancer. A total of 140 surgically resected
ovarian cancer specimens were subjected to Feulgen staining to evaluate nuclear morphology, and immunohistochemistry analysis to assess
Lamin A and
emerin expression. The histological images were analyzed via computer-assisted image analysis (CAIA). The results demonstrated that the mean nuclear area of
EMCa was significantly smaller compared with CCCa (P=0.0009). The standard deviation of the mean nuclear area was used to assess nuclear size variation, and the results indicated that
EMCa lesions were significantly smaller than CCCa lesions (P=0.0006). Regarding the correlation between the
Lamin A-positive rate and nuclear morphological factors, positive correlations were observed with nuclear area in CCCa and
EMCa (R=0.2855 and R=0.2858, respectively) and nuclear perimeter in CCCa,
EMCa and MUCa (R=0.2409, R=0.4054 and R=0.2370, respectively); however, a negative correlation with nuclear shape factor was observed in HGSCa and
EMCa (R=-0.2079 and R=-0.3707, respectively). With regards to the correlation between
emerin positivity and nuclear morphological factors, positive correlations were observed with nuclear shape factor in HGSCa (R=0.2673) and nuclear area in CCCa (R=0.3310). It is well-known that HGSCa and CCCa have conspicuous nuclear size variation, and
EMCa has small nuclei without strong atypia. These findings were verified in the present study via CAIA. Taken together, the results of the present study suggest that
Lamin A strongly contributes to the maintenance of nuclear morphology in
ovarian epithelial cancer compared with
emerin, although their contributions differ based on
tumor subtype.