title: An immunocytochemical study of normal and abnormal human cerebrospinal fluid with monoclonal antibodies to glial fibrillary acidic protein.
abstract: The presence of astrocytes in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients may be of diagnostic importance. However, the frequency with which astrocytes are shed into normal and abnormal human CSF is unknown. This issue was studied using monoclonal antibodies to an astrocyte-specific antigen, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and immunoperoxidase cytochemistry. The study was prospectively conducted on 108 CSF preparations diagnosed as normal, reactive, metastatic malignancy or suspicious for metastatic malignancy. To validate these methods, cells from a clonal human glioma cell line, which contains astrocytes rich in GFAP, were processed in a manner identical to that used for the CSFs obtained from patients. Studies of the human glioma cell line demonstrated intense GFAP immunoreactivity in the majority of the malignant astrocytes. In contrast, none of the CSFs contained GFAP-positive cells. We conclude that immunocytochemical methods can detect GFAP in neoplastic human astrocytes but that nonneoplastic GFAP-positive cells are uncommon in human CSF; such cells were not seen in our large series of normal and abnormal human CSFs. The immunocytochemical detection of GFAP may be a useful criterion for distinguishing malignant astrocytes from other types of malignant cells in human CSF.
authors.forename: J Q
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Trojanowski
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Atkinson
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis; D002460:Cell Line; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000032:analysis / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D005910:Glioma / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000175:diagnosis; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein