The demonstration of B‐cell, T‐cell and myeloid antigens in paraffin sections

Abstract

The monoclonal antibodies MB1 and MT1, which detect B cells and T cells respectively, have been applied to human lymphoid tissues. The distribution of staining within paraffin sections was compared with that observed using frozen sections and was found to be identical. The antibodies were then applied to paraffin sections of 19 B‐cell lymphomas and 10 T‐cell lesions in which full immunophenotyping had been performed. The B lymphomas all consisted of a large majority of MB1 positive cells with a variable infiltrate of small MT1 positive lymphocytes. The T cell lesions consisted of MT1 positive cells with few MB1 positive cells except in residual B cell areas of lymph nodes. In paraffin sections from cases of Hodgkin's disease anti‐Leu M1 identified Reed‐Sternberg cells and their variants and MB1 and MT1 showed a similar distribution of B cells and T cells to that demonstrated in previous studies using frozen sections. The results show that MB1 and MT1 are useful markers for B and T cells in routinely fixed paraffin embedded tissue. In conjunction with anti‐Leu M1 they provide a valuable panel of antisera for the examination of lymph nodes and other biopsies when frozen tissue is not available.