Hirschsprung's disease studied with monoclonal antineurofilament antibodies on tissue sections

In a retrospective study of Hirschsprung's disease two monoclonal antineurofilament antibodies were tested immunohistochemically. Biopsy samples of rectum and colon were fixed in formalin and embedded in paraffin. Tissue sections from normal controls and from unaffected colon of patients with Hirschsprung's disease showed partial staining of only some of the axon bundles in the myenteric and in the submucous plexus. In contrast, in all tissue sections from colon affected by Hirschsprung's disease there were heavily stained hyperplastic axon bundles. Sections of colon from patients with various other neurogenic disorders of the colon were studied by the same method; the characteristic Hirschsprung picture was never seen.