EVALUATION OF HUMAN CONJUNCTIVAL EPITHELIUM BY A COMBINATION OF BRUSHCYTOLOGY AND FLOW-CYTOMETRY - AN APPROACH TO THE QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUE

Cytology using the brush technique is readily available and is a rapid means of establishing a presumptive diagnosis of ocular surface chang es. However, those techniques have some limitations when obtaining cel ls from certain localized areas particularly if using the Cytobrush-S( R). We have described here a new type of brush (Accellon-M(R)), which can collect the local cells using its spherical tip, and evaluated the m by comparing with Cytobrush-S(R). Furthermore, we differentiated epi thelial cells from non-epithelial cells that were collected by brushin g, and by a combination of brush cytology and flow cytometry using an anti-keratin antibody, AE-3, which reacts with all basic epithelial ke ratins. Accellon-M(R) could collect the epithelial cells from conjunct iva as effectively as with the Cytobrush-S(R), and there were no stati stical differences between both groups. AE-3, which is reported as the marker of epithelial cells, were detected quantitatively by a combina tion of brush cytology and flow cytometry techniques. The result of th e present study emphasizes that both the Cytobrush-S(R) and the Accell on-M(R) are valuable for conjunctival brush cytology. An additional po sitive feature of the Accellon-M(R) may be improved cell collection fr om the conjunctival epithelium especially when the target cells are in a limited area. The combination of the brush cytology and the flow cy tometry technique appears to be a useful adjunct as an additional diag nostic or research tool for use in the detection of various antigens i n the conjunctival epithelium. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.