IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY OF NEURON-SPECIFIC ENOLASE WITH GAMMA-SUBUNIT SPECIFIC ANTIPEPTIDE MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES

Aims-To investigate the application in immunohistochemistry of gamma-s ubunit specific anti-peptide monoclonal antibodies to human neurone sp ecific enolase (NSE); and to determine their reactivity with formalin fixed, wax embedded sections of normal tissue and neuroendocrine tumou rs. Methods-Immunohistochemical staining was performed on sections of formalin fixed, wax embedded tissue with two monoclonal antibodies (NS E-P1 and NSE-P2) raised against different synthetic peptides specific for the gamma subunit of human enolase (neurone specific enolase). Res ults-Both antibodies gave strong immunostaining in normal tissues and cells known to contain NSE. There was no immunoreactivity in tissues c ontaining either the alphaalpha or betabeta isozymes of enolase. The r eactivity of the antibodies with a range of neuroendocrine tumours was also studied and both antibodies gave strong immunostaining of tumour cells in the different tumours. Conclusions-The use of synthetic pept ides from defined regions of a molecule as immunogens provides antibod ies of high specificity. These monoclonal antibodies to NSE are ideall y suited for immunohistochemical studies and they should be particular ly useful in histopathology as they react with epitopes which are resi stant to formalin fixation and wax embedding.