Expression of GD2-epitopes in human intracranial tumors and normal brain

Two monoclonal antibodies (mabs) were raised against ganglioside GD2 (Gtri2) and tested on human intracranial tumors and normal brain by immunohistochemical methods both in frozen and paraffin embedded sections. In normal brain structures, astrocytes were visualized with both mabs (BW 625 and BW 704) almost exclusively in the subventricular and subpial layer. A minor amount of myelin sheaths in well defined localisation was only recognized in frozen sections. Consequently in astrocytic tumors of different grades of malignancy (WHO I-IV), astrocytes were depicted in their characteristic shape and arrangement around vessels. In addition, staining was observed in meningiomas and schwannomas, but not in pituitary adenomas or metastatic carcinomas. In meningioma und schwannoma the staining was restricted to the cellular periphery and was again present in frozen section material and absent in paraffin embedded tissue. In astrocytes, reactive and neoplastic, obviously fibrous processes and cytoplasm were distinctly stained both in frozen and paraffin embedded sections. It is concluded that some neuroectodermal derived cells as well as myelin of defined localisation express GD2 on the membrane surfaces and in the cytoplasm. The latter may primarily be the case in fibrous astrocytes, which were stained in reactive and pathologic conditions. The reaction can be used as diagnostic tool in astrocytic tumors; its positive therapeutic significance is hampered by the fact that (1) not all cells in heterogeneous tumor populations express the epitope and (2) there are normal structures which do so.