Detection of T cells in paraffin wax embedded tissue using antibodies against a peptide sequence from the CD3 antigen.

Rabbit polyclonal antibodies were raised against a proline rich, peptide sequence, comprising 13 amino acids, in the cytoplasmic domain of the CD3 epsilon chain. Immunoprecipitation experiments showed that this antibody preparation recognised the CD3 antigen on human T lymphoblasts. The antibody stained normal T cells strongly in tissue sections which had been fixed in formalin or Bouin's solution and embedded in paraffin wax. Its reactivity with T cell lymphoma, when evaluated on a series of 96 previously phenotyped cases, closely agreed with the results obtained on cryostat sections. These results indicate that the specific detection of T cells in routinely processed tissue biopsy specimens is now technically feasible on a wide scale in diagnostic laboratories using CD3 peptide antibodies, and they also suggest that in future the use of anti-peptide antibodies may detect other lineage specific antigenic markers in paraffin wax sections.