| Summary: | Actins are ubiquitous eucaryotic proteins. Actin filaments are involved in diverse functions which include cell contraction, motility, adhesion, division, cell shape maintenance and muscle contraction. Four actin isoforms are tissue specific (α-smooth muscle actin, α-cardiac actin, α-skeletal actin and γ-smooth muscle actin). Two other actin isoforms (cytoplasmic β- and γ-actins) are ubiquitous. Alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression is typically found in vascular and enteric muscle tissue, in myoepithelial cells, myofibroblasts and pericytes. However, expression of this actin isoform could be detected in a variety of other cells and tumors with a preexisting different phenotype. Our study focused on the expression of actin isoforms in some muscular and non-muscular tissues and tumors. The goals of our study were: 1 Analysis of actin isoforms expression in normal, osteoarthrotic, posttraumatic and transplanted cartilage. 2 Analysis of actin isoform expression in some non-muscle tumors. 3 Analysis of actin isoform expression in uterine leiomyomas after therapy and in leiomyomas with inclusion bodies of the gastrointestinal tract and uterus and the detailed analysis of inclusion bodies. A total of 82 samples of cartilage, 591 samples of neuroectodermal tumors, 87 cases of breast carcinoma, and 29 cases...
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