In human, proximal convoluted tubules and thin limbs of Henle show expression of αB
crystallin.
Renal cell carcinoma also showed expression of αB
crystallin in previous reports. We aimed to study the association between αB
crystallin expression and
renal cell carcinoma and urothelial
carcinoma. Furthermore, we also investigated αB
crystallin expression depending on the subtype of
renal cell carcinoma and examined the relationship between αB
crystallin expression and survival in patients with
renal cell carcinoma. In our study, αB
crystallin expression was different according to the type of
tumor. A greater proportion of the clear cell type (52/77, 67.5%) and papillary type (4/4, 100%) showed reactivity compared to the chromophobe type (0/10, 0%). In the present study, a significantly greater number of
renal cell carcinomas showed strong expression of αB
crystallin (56/91, 61.5%) compared to urothelial
carcinoma (P=7.967e-07). Therefore, αB
crystallin might be a significant marker of
renal cell carcinoma and might help to determine the type of renal
tumor in cases of poorly differentiated kidney lesions and metastatic lesions. αB
crystallin expression was not related to overall survival in univariate and multivariate models. In our study,
alpha B crystallin could not be considered a prognostic marker of
renal cell carcinoma.