Abstract
Possible detection of metastatic neuroblastoma (NB) cells in bone marrow was investigated by indirect immunofluorescence using A2B5 monoclonal antibody (MA). This MA is reported to define the GQ ganglioside determinant on the neural cells by Eisenbarth et al. Primary tumor cells from one paint with NB (stage III), bone marrow aspirates form 7 patients with NB (stage II: 1, stage III: 1, stage IV: 2, and stage IVs : 3 cases respectively) and from one patient with acute monocytic leukemia, and murine NB cells were used in this study. The presence of NB cells in these specimens were simultaneously examined by conventional methods such as MayGiema and/or catecholamine fluorescent stainings. The detectability of NB cells by A2B5 MA were well correlated with that of conventional methods in one primary tumor specimen and bone marrow specimens with or without NB involvement. However, in one bone marrow specimen with negative detection of NB cells by catecholamine fluorescent staining, the presence of NB cells were demonstrated by A2B5. Murine NB cells reacted with A2B5, whereas acute monocytic leukemia cells did not. These results indicated that the membrane phenotypic study using A2B5 MA could be more potential method to detect the bone marrow metastatic cells especially in the catecholamine florescent negative NB cells.
