Catalyzed Reporter Deposition Method for Amplifying Endocrine Products

The catalyze reporter deposition (CARD) method is a new technique to enhance signal detection in immunostaining, immunoelectron microscopy, and in situ hybridization. This technique, which uses a biotinylated tyramine amplification reagent, has been applied to endocrine cells and tumors, and has shown a marked increase in sensitivity in detecting small amounts of protein antigens in endocrine cells and tumors. Although some technical problems remain before widespread application of this method can be used the potential for more in depth understanding of normal and neoplastic endocrine tissue by CARD analysis is largely unexplored at this time.