[A comparison of immunohistologic technics in dermatopathology]

With the increasing use of immunohistological techniques in the diagnosis of skin diseases, the question of appropriate techniques becomes more and more important. In this study the ABC (avidin-biotin-peroxidase-complex)-technique, the IGSS (immunogold-silver-staining)-technique and the APAAP (alkaline phosphatase anti-alkaline phosphatase)-technique are described. Antigenic determinants are demonstrated in frozen and paraffin-embedded sections with monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, lectins and protein A. Sensitivity, reliability, application and handling of these techniques and their suitability for double labelling are compared. The ABC-technique is easy to handle, as sensitive as the other techniques, and gives good results with mono- and polyclonal antibodies, lectins and protein A in paraffin-embedded sections. The APAAP-technique yields good results when monoclonal antibodies are used in frozen sections. Similar results are obtained with the IGSS-technique, which also gives good results with polyclonal antibodies, lectins and protein A.