Abstract
Griffonia simplicifolia agglutinin-II (GSA-II) staining following endo-β-galactosidase (E-β-G) digestion procedure was applied on cells of three papillary carcinomas extracted by fine needle aspiration, and cells obtained by stamping five papillary carcinomas, two adenomas and five normal tissues adjacent to tumors excised at surgery. The results demonstrated that all the clusters of cells and almost all the separated two or three cells from eight papillary carcinomas were stained with GSA-II following E-β-G digestion. The cells from two adenomas and five normal thyroid tissues had no reactivity with GSA-II following E-β-G digestion. These results are well consistent with the previous ones using formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections. Applying the procedure of GSA-II staining following E-β-G digestion to cells collected by fine needle aspirate would be useful means to distinguish thyroid papillary carcinomas from other types of thyroid tumors before operation.
