title: Immunohistochemical detection of estrogen receptors on paraffin sections of normal, hyperplatic and carcinomatous endometrium.
abstract: The present study is the first dealing with the demonstration of estrogen receptors (ER) in up to 8-year-old paraffin blocks of endometrial curettage samples routinely fixed in 10% formalin. The Mab ER-ICA was used in a modified peroxidase-antiperoxidase method after pretreatment of paraffin sections with pronase. Eleven cases with proliferative, 11 cases with secretory endometrium, 20 cases with adenocystic, 21 with adenomatous hyperplasia and 27 endometrial adenocarcinomas were tested. The two main parameters, namely the percentage of ER-positive cells and the intensity of the immunostaining, were higher in the proliferative phase followed in a declining sequence by adenocystic hyperplasia, adenomatous hyperplasia, adenocarcinomas and the secretory phase of endometrium. Interestingly, the intensity of the immunostaining showed a positive relationship to the percentage of ER-positive cells (r = 0.93, p less than 0.001). It seems that the immunohistochemical demonstration of ER in paraffin sections of uterine specimens is an easy and reliable method for the mapping of the heterogeneous expression of ER and their comparative study with the well preserved histopathological features even in old archival paraffin-embedded material.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, School of Medicine, Greece.
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Papadimitriou
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Athanasiadou
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stylianidou
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Demoliatis
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Stephanou
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004717:Endometrium / Q000166:cytology / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006965:Hyperplasia / Q000473:pathology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D011379:Prognosis; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D011960:Receptors, Estrogen