The lectins Peanut agglutinin (PNA),
Canavalia ensiformis (Con A), Ulex europaeusl (UEAl),
Dolichos biflorus (DBA), Triticum vulgaris (WGA)
were studied in a series of 36 meningiomas (16
meningotheliomatous-including 3 recurrences, 7
transitional, 4 angiomatous, 2 ((hemangiopericytic~3,
papillary-including 1 recurrence, 4 anaplastic-including
3 recurrences.
PNA binds to all cases of meningotheliomatous,
transitional, papillary and anaplastic meningiomas
(including recurrent cases) but the staining is more
intense in tumor cells of anaplastic and papillary type. A
semiquantitative study showed differences of PNAreactivity
in the different subtypes of meningiomas. In
meningotheliomatous meningiomas PNA-positivity was
encountered in numerous neoplastic cells (50%),
whereas papillary and anaplastic subtypes expressed
strong cytoplasmic staining of few tumor cells (C 5%).
Con A shows the same pattern of reactivity described for
PNA, but more weakly.
Our results suggest that PNA is a marker of
differentiation in meningiomas rather than malignant
transformation and can have prognostic relevance