The cytochemical demonstration of oestrogen receptors in human breast carcinomas

Abstract

A cytochemical method has been used to demonstrate oestrogen receptor in histological sections of breast carcinomas, and has given similar qualitative results to the biochemical dextra-coated charcoal method. Two conjugation techniques were employed to couple horseradish peroxidase to 17 beta-oestradiol-6-O-carboxymethyloxime-bovine serum albumin. The periodate conjugation method led to a greater degree of coupling but a higher concentration was required for demonstration of oestrogen receptor than that needed when the two-stage glutaraldehyde conjugation method was use, even though this resulted in a lesser degree of coupling. Care in the preparation of tissue has been found to be essential. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue was unsuitable; rapid freezing of fresh tissue, only brief air-drying or acetone fixation of tissue sections and short-term storage were important. A correlation has been shown between the presence of oestrogen receptor in breast carcinomas and good histological differentiation. The poorer differentiated tumours were also found to contain fewer reactive cells.

Are fluorescein‐conjugated androgens appropriate for a histochemical detection of prostatic androgen receptors?

“…A further criterion of receptor proteins is their restriction to target organs. Concerning the visualization of estrogen receptors (ER) , other authors have described various controls for assessing the organ specificity using nontarget cells and tissues [3,9,11,14,16,49]. We were not successful in trying to prove organ specificity of the staining procedure.…”

“…We never found stained nuclei, as far as histologic structures could be identified. Another puzzling finding is the observation of Pertschuk et a1 [34], who reported on estradiol, progesterone and testosterone receptors in lung tissue from adult rats, whereas Walker [49] and Barrows [3] successfully used human lung tissue as negative control for ER demonstration. Such discrepancies suggest that the criterion of organ specificity is not demonstrated with the methods described.…”

“…It should be mentioned that there are controversial views concerning the influence of fixation such as formalin and acetone treatment [24, 26,45] or heating during paraffin embedding. Some authors regard these techniques as deleterious to the steroid receptors [8,16,49,50], while others report satisfactory results [ 11,14,46].…”

Ανοσοιστοχημικη Ανιχνευση Υποδοχεων Οιστρογονων Σε Καρκινο Του Μαστου. Συγκριτικη Μελετη

“…Πολλές ομάδες ερευνητών έλαβαν καλή έως εξαιρετικά καλή συσχέτιση των αποτελεσμάτων της ιστοχημικής μεθόδου που εφήρμοσαν με εκείνα των προ τύπων βιοχημικών μεθόδων (Walker, 1981, Curtin, et al, 1982, Furnival, et al, 1983, Jansson, et al, 1985 . Ως πλούσιος σε υποδοχείς ιστός ελέγχου, δη λαδή ως μάρτυρας, στις ιστοχημικές δοκιμασίες χρησιμοποιείται το αυλικό, επι θηλιακό κυτταρικό στοιχεία της μήτρας ανώριμων ποντικών, στους οτιοίοΜς έ χει χορηγη,θεί 17-β-οιστραδιόλη (Lee, 1983) .…”

“…Μία εκτίμηση των συσχετίσεων, που έχουν γίνει μεταξύ του ιστολογικού βαθμού του όγκου και του περιεχομένου των υποδοχέων, είναι δύσκολη., επει δή οι περισσότεροι ερευνητές χρησιμοποιούν διαφορετικά συστήματα, διαβάθμι σης καθώς και διαφορετική ορολογία. Πάραυτα η γενική εντύπωση είναι, ότι τα καλά διαφοροποιημένα καρκινώματα είναι πιο συχνά θετικά για υποδοχείς οιστρογόνων, απ' ότι τα χαμηλής 'διαφοροποίησης (Maynard, et al, 1978, Masters, et al, 1979, Pari and Wagner, 1980, Fisher, et al, 1980, Silfverswärd, et al, 1980, McCarty, et al, 11980, Millis, 1980, King, 1980, Furmanski, et al, 1980, Rasmussen, et al, 1981, Fisher, et al, 1981, Walker, 1981, Duffy, et al, 1984, Stosiek, et al, 1984, AJanko, et al, 1984, Chua, et al, 1985.…”