Inflammatory response to chronic otitis media in DiGeorge syndrome: A casestudy using immunohistochemistry on archival temporal bone sections

Immunohistochemical analyses were conducted on archival celloidin-embedded human temporal bone sections from an 8-month-old boy with chronic otitis me dia and DiGeorge syndrome. We employed antigen retrieval methods with satur ated sodium hydroxide-methanol solution, microwave incubation, and proteoly tic treatment to demonstrate the distribution of T-lymphocytes, B-lymphocyt es, macrophages, and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) expression in the middle ear. B-lymphocytes and macrophages were observed predominantl y within the middle ear mucosa. T-lymphocytes were rare. Further, ICAM-1 wa s expressed in the vascular endothelium of the lamina propria as well as in filtrating mononuclear cells. This suggests that the expression of ICAM-1 c an be induced in the middle ear with otitis media, even if T-lymphocytes ar e depressed in a cell-mediated immunodeficiency disorder such as DiGeorge s yndrome.