Thyroid peroxidase expression in diseased human thyroid glands

Histoenzymologic studies of the human thyroid have been restricted to attempts to differentiate benign from malignant tumors and, to our knowledge, there is no systematic study on the distribution and behavior of enzymes for several types of lesions of the thyroid gland. The aim of the present study was to investigate thyroid peroxidase (TPO) expression in diseased thyroids, as well as to study the role of this enzyme as a parameter to define the biological behavior of thyroid lesions. A total of 117 neoplastic and nonneoplastic lesions of the thyroid were evaluated. The expression of TPO was determined by the analysis of at least 200 cells/specimen. A rate of 80% of positive cells was considered a threshold for TPO positivity. TPO expression was detected in all nonneoplastic lesions of thyroid as well as in 78.8% of the adenomas. We also observed positivity for TPO in 20% of malignant lesions. Therefore, these findings do not allow separation of benign and malignant lesions of the thyroid based in the expression of TPO.