Immunocytochemistry in diagnostic histopathology: its contributions and limitations

Abstract

Immunocytochemical techniques are highly sensitive and highly specific methods which demonstrate a wide variety of cellular and extracellular antigens in tissue sections. The techniques have been successfully applied to histopathological materials and have been an important tool for pathologists in understanding functional and/or histogenetic aspects of diseases. Two major limitations in immunocytochemistry are preservation of antigens in tissues sections and availability of highly specific primary antibodies. Further improvements, quality control and standardization are necessary in order to make these powerful methods more reliable and reproducible.