Standardized Computer-Assisted Analysis of 5-hmC Immunoreactivity in Dysplastic Nevi and Superficial Spreading Melanomas

oleh: Elias A. T. Koch, Carola Berking, Ramona Erber, Michael Erdmann, Franklin Kiesewetter, Stefan Schliep, Markus V. Heppt

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-09-01

Deskripsi

5-Hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) is an important intermediate of DNA demethylation. Hypomethylation of DNA is frequent in cancer, resulting in deregulation of 5-hmC levels in melanoma. However, the interpretation of the intensity and distribution of 5-hmC immunoreactivity is not very standardized, which makes its interpretation difficult. In this study, 5-hmC-stained histological slides of superficial spreading melanomas (SSM) and dysplastic compound nevi (DN) were digitized and analyzed using the digital pathology and image platform QuPath. Receiver operating characteristic/area under the curve (ROCAUC) and t-tests were performed. A <i>p</i>-value of <0.05 was used for statistical significance, and a ROCAUC score of >0.8 was considered a “good” result. In total, 92 5-hmC-stained specimens were analyzed, including 42 SSM (45.7%) and 50 DN (54.3%). The mean of 5-hmC-positive cells/mm<sup>2</sup> for the epidermis and dermo-epidermal junction and the entire lesion differed significantly between DN and SSM (<i>p</i> = 0.002 and <i>p</i> = 0.006, respectively) and showed a trend towards higher immunoreactivity in the dermal component (<i>p</i> = 0.069). The ROCAUC of 5-hmC-positive cells of the epidermis and dermo-epidermal junction was 0.79, for the dermis 0.74, and for the entire lesion 0.76. These results show that the assessment of the epidermal with junctional expression of 5-hmC is slightly superior to dermal immunoreactivity in distinguishing between DN and SSM.