Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA/cyclin) immunocytochemistry as a labeling index in mouse lung tissues

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen is expressed in cells from late G1 through the S-phase of the cell cycle. Therefore, antibodies directed against this molecule should provide a probe for labeling immunocytochemically the nuclei of proliferating cells. Herein we demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of this technique by quantifying immunostained pulmonary nuclei. We applied polyclonal and monoclonal antisera to alveolar and bronchiolar pulmonary epithelial cells in various proliferative states in tissue-sections and in vitro. A/J mice had a slightly higher labeling index than C57BL/6J mice, and proliferation in both strains increased dramatically after butylated hydroxytoluene treatment produced compensatory hyperplasia of Type-II pneumocytes. Immunostaining in fetal and neonatal lung samples from mice was higher than in adults. Spontaneous lung adenomas had a higher labeling index than the surrounding normal lung tissue. In addition, new data contained herein demonstrate a strain difference in proliferation of bronchiolar epithelial cells, and quantify the extent to which BHT-induced lung damage increases these proliferative rates. This mammalian nuclear antigen did not cross-react with antiserum to a functionally related bacterial protein, the beta subunit of E. coli DNA polymerase-III holoenzyme.