Summary
Localisation of parathyroid tissue in hyperparathyroidism may be difficult with standard
methods. Immunoscintigraphy, using radiolabeled antibodies against epitopes of human
parathyroid cells, could be a promising alternative. Therefore, we studied the necessary
preconditions, whether the so-called BB5-antibody, directed against parathyroid cell
membranes possesses sufficient specificity and affinity to be employed in immunoscintigraphy.
Specificity was tested immunohisto-chemically with APAAP-staining of 39 different
human tissues. Additionally, an immunoscore-based quantitative comparison was performed
to test the affinity of BB5-antibody for normal and pathologic parathyroid tissue.
Specificity was proven by the fact that of all 39 tested tissue-types only the parathyroid
tissue was BB5-posi-tive. Normal parathyroid tissue showed a significantly higher
affinity to the BB5-antibody than pathologic parathyroid tissue (p < 0.03). However,
all tissue samples from primary or secondary hyperparathyroidism exhibited sufficient
staining.
We conclude that the BB5-antibody fulfills the necessary conditions to be tried for
immunoscintigraphical localisation of the parathyroid glands.
Key words
Parythyroid - monoclonal antibody - immuno-histochemistry
