Immunohistochemical differentiation between lymphangiographically verified lymphatic vessels and blood vessels

Abstract

In order to investigate the antigen profile in human lymphatic vessels when compared with blood vessels, postmortem retrograde lymphangiography was done via the thoracic duct on six patients. Formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue was stained immunohistochemically for Factor VIII-Related antigen (F VIII R:Ag), with Ulex Europaeus 1 lectin (UEA-1) and for laminin. The results show that the endothelium of blood vessels and lymphatics at all levels of the lymphatic system react positively following staining for Factor VIII-R:Ag and with UEA-1 lectin. The staining for F VIII R:Ag was generally weaker in the endothelial cells lining lymphatic vessels. Staining for the basement membrane component laminin can be used to distinguish lymphatic capillaries and smaller lymphatic collecting vessels from blood vessels.

Comparative study of lymphatics and bllod vessels.

“…Our immunoperoxidase method using laminin and type IV collagen antisera reveals clearly different immunoreactivity to these antisera between lymphatic capillaries and blood capillaries: lymphatic capillaries have negative or weak immunoreactivity around the wall in contrast to blood capillaries with strong, linear subendothelial staining. These findings are in accord with the results reported by Barsky (3), Autio-Harmainen (2) and Hultberg (10), and are clearer in our IGSS method than in the immunoperoxidase method. Fine granular products in the IGSS method, using 5 nm immunogold particles, were in sharper contrast against the background, and were more intense and thinner than DAB reaction products in the immunoperoxidase method.…”

“…Fine granular products in the IGSS method, using 5 nm immunogold particles, were in sharper contrast against the background, and were more intense and thinner than DAB reaction products in the immunoperoxidase method. Lymphatic collecting vessels showed weak focal staining around the wall as reported in dermal lymphatics (2) and an especially intense reaction in the areas near valves (10). These findings of lymphatic vessels were in good agreement with our conventional electron microscopy demonstration that disrupted lamina densa was occasionally present around lymphatic collecting vessels, and especially valve sites had a continuous lamina densa.…”

“…Some studies have revealed that these substrates are located on the basement membrane regions in many tissues (1,31). Therefore, the basement membrane components have recently attracted increased interest in the differentiation between lymphatic capillaries and blood capillaries (3,10). In the present study, two methods of distinguishing lymphatic capillaries from blood capillaries are reported: one uses toluidine blue stained sections embedded in epoxy resin following arterial perfusion-fixation, and the other is an immunohistochemical technique using anti-basement membrane antiserum (laminin, type IV collagen and fibronectin antisera), the indirect immunoperoxidase method, and immunogold and immunogold-silver staining (IGSS) methods.…”

Histopathological study of lymphatic invasion in squamous cell carcinoma (O-1N) with high potential of lymph node metastasis

“…Enzyme-histochemical procedures for 5'-nucleotidase and alkaline phosphatase have been introduced [13], but their specificity for the lymphatic endothelium is not well confirmed [14]. Recently, immunohistochemical staining for factor VIII-related antigen , Ulex europaeus I lectin (UEA-I) binding [15,16], LN and IV [14,15,18,19] have been found to be useful in discriminating blood vessels from lymphatics in humans or rats. Vascular invasion was also well demonstrated by these stains [11,[20][21][22][23].…”

The stratigraphical organisation of the microvascular systems of the porcine vocal folds

“…The vWF is a marker of blood vascular and lymphatic endothelium and is therefore regarded as a panendothelial marker. The lymphatic endothelium shows a weaker intensity and more focal staining when compared with blood vascular endothelium because of the sparse and attenuated cytoplasm of the lymphatic endothelial cells [13,28,30].…”