Figure 2

Elafin is downregulated in ovarian tumor specimens compared to the normal fallopian tube epithelium. (A) Representative photomicrographs of elafin IHC staining (using the monoclonal antibody TRAB/2 F from Hycult Biotech) in normal fallopian tube (i and ii), ovarian cystadenoma (iii), ovarian borderline tumor (iv), and invasive ovarian carcinoma (v and vi). (B) Quantification of elafin immunohistochemical (IHC) staining: positive cases are at or above the level of elafin expression in the epithelium of the normal fallopian tube and negative cases represent elafin downregulation compared to the epithelium of the normal fallopian tube. The dashed lines represent the cutoff used in this analysis, which was set at an elafin score of 4 based on the range of elafin expression in the normal fallopian tube. (C) Frequency distribution illustrating the percentage of cases, evaluated by IHC, falling into each categorical score over the range 0 to 8 for normal fallopian tube, ovarian cystadenomas, ovarian borderline tumors, and invasive ovarian carcinoma, statistical significance determined by Fisher’s exact test.