Distribution of anti-CD68 (EBM11) immunoreactivity in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded bovine tissues

Abstract

A commercially acquired anti-human macrophage antibody (anti-CD68; EBM11) was used in an immunocytochemical technique to detect macrophages in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues from cattle, pigs, humans, rats, turkeys, dogs, and cats. In healthy cattle, the antibody labeled alveolar macrophages, pulmonary intravascular cells (presumably intravascular macrophages), and macrophage-like cells in other tissues. In bovine lungs infected with Pasteurella haemolytica, EBM11 antibody labeled 95% of alveolar macrophages and macrophages within alveolar septa but only 0-2% of streaming or "oat" leukocytes. Alveolar macrophages were also stained by EBM11 in pigs but not in rats, turkeys, dogs, and cats. The antibody also stained macrophage aggregates in the mesenteric lymph nodes and intestinal lamina propria of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis-infected cattle. This study shows that the anti-CD68 (EBM11) antibody is a useful marker of macrophages in normal bovine tissues or tissues from areas of acute or chronic inflammation that have been routinely processed. The study also adds strength to the growing evidence suggesting that streaming leukocytes seen in pneumonic pasteurellosis are neutrophils.