Detection of surface immunoglobulins of human lymphoid cells: a comparative study of live and fixed cells using a direct immunoperoxidase procedure

Application of the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex technique for ultraimmunocytochemical characterization of leukemic cells

For simultaneous demonstration of cellular ultrastructure, myeloperoxidase activity, and presence of a membrane-bound antigen in a given blood cell, we examined three different fixatives: periodate-lysine-paraformaldehyde (PLP) and paraformaldehyde and glutaraldehyde for their applicability to preembedding electron microscopic immunocytochemistry using monoclonal antibodies and the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex (ABC) technique. This procedure was examined in samples from 3 normal volunteers and 29 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), lymphosarcoma cell leukemia (LSCL), blastic phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML-BC), or other unclassified leukemias. PLP fixation preserved the immunoreactivity of surface glycoproteins as well as immunoglobulins to the most satisfactory extent. Leukemic cells fixed with PLP maintained their fine structural details, so that we could identify their cytoplasmic organelles, although glutaraldehyde produced the best preservation of cellular ultrastructure. In three patients with ALL, our method revealed that a significant portion of blasts possessed both lymphoid surface antigens and peroxidase-positive cytoplasmic granules. Our method was also useful in identifying the lineage of peroxidase-negative leukemic cells, including monoblastic leukemia and megakaryoblastic leukemia cells. Ultraimmunocytochemistry using PLP fixation and the ABC technique may be a promising strategy for determining the nature of blastic cells that remain unclear after a conventional work-up, for characterizing leukemic cells in patients with a relatively low blast cell count in the bone marrow or peripheral blood, and for estimating the presence and frequency of leukemia with multilineage expression.

A sensitive method for immunophenotyping stored leukemia and lymphoma cells with preservation of morphological detail

We describe a method by which density-separated mononuclear preparations of blood and bone marrow may be stored and batch-processed for immunophenotyping by the indirect immunoperoxidase (IP) technique. The method gives excellent preservation of cellular detail thus permitting clear morphological categorization of IP-positive and IP-negative cells. We compared the immunofluorescence (IF) and IP techniques for estimation of the proportions of cells displaying a variety of antigens; with normal blood cells the results were closely similar but with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells, IP was superior to conventional IF. Using 910 D7, a new anti-la antibody, we were able to observe directly the presence of la-positive lymphocytes and monocytes in normal peripheral blood and la-positive granulocyte precursor cells from 2 cases of chronic granulocytic leukemia (CGL) in transformation. The method is useful for immunophenotyping of cases of lymphoproliferative disorder (LPD) and for morphological identification of specific antigen-positive cells.

A simple immunoenzyme batch staining method for the enumeration of peripheral human T lymphocyte subsets

A simple batch method was developed for enumeration of peripheral human T lymphocyte subsets by immunoenzyme staining of stored prefixed preparations of peripheral mononuclear cells on multiple well microscope slides. By this method the monoclonal antibodies Leu 1, Leu 2a and Leu 3a stained the same number of cells as by indirect immunofluorescence on suspended cells.