Basic Cytokeratin Antibody

There are two types of cytokeratins/keratins/CKs: the acidic type I cytokeratins and the basic or neutral type II cytokeratins. The subsets of cytokeratins which an epithelial cell expresses depends mainly on the type of epithelium, the moment in the course of terminal differentiation and the stage of development. Thus this specific keratin fingerprint allows the classification of all epithelia upon their keratin expression profile. Furthermore this applies also to the malignant counterparts of the epithelia (carcinomas), as the keratin profile tends to remain constant when an epithelium undergoes malignant transformation. The main clinical implication is that the study of the keratin profile by immunohistochemistry techniques is a tool of immense value widely used for tumor diagnosis and characterization in surgical pathology. [Wiki]