Kallikreins expression in a mature cystic ovarian teratoma.

We report an example of benign cystic ovarian teratoma that was incidentally discovered in a nulliparous 24-year-old woman taking contraceptive pills. Histological examination of the cyst revealed the presence of prostatelike tissue in association with a wide variety of other tissues. The use of highly specific monoclonal antibodies developed against the two prostate-specific kallikreins (hK2 and hK3) in humans allowed the demonstration that the multiple islets of epithelial cells were prostatic tissue in nature and that only part of these cells had conserved their intrinsic property of producing kallikreins.