R. Hausmann et al., THE FORENSIC VALUE OF THE IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL DETECTION OF ESTROGEN-RECEPTORS IN VAGINAL EPITHELIUM, International journal of legal medicine, 109(1), 1996, pp. 10-13
This study investigated whether oestrogen receptors can be immunohisto
chemically detected in paraffin-embedded vaginal mucosa samples using
monoclonal antibodies and whether the method would be suitable for the
identification of vaginal cells in cytological smears. Samples of vag
inal mucosa were obtained from living females and female corpses, as v
aginal smears. For comparison purposes, resected prepuce samples and s
amples of postmortem male urethral mucosa were also investigated, Nucl
ear oestrogen receptors could be regularly detected in the basal, para
basal and deeper intermediate epithelium layers of freshly fixed vagin
al mucosa but proved to be highly sensitive to autolytic changes. In t
he cytological smears obtained from living subjects, no oestrogen rece
ptors were detectable. Oestrogen receptors were also detected in the b
asal epidermal cells of the male prepuce.