Volume 52 (3): 347-354, 2004 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Immunofluorescence and Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy of Chronic Myeloproliferative Disorders on Archival Formaldehyde-fixed Bone Marrow
Maurice E. Mueller Institute at Biozentrum, Basle, Switzerland (RS,WB), and Department of Pathology, Kantonsspital, Aarau, Switzerland (RHL) Correspondence to: R. Hubert Laeng, MD, Dept. of Pathology, Kantonsspital, CH-5001 Aarau, Switzerland. E-mail: laeng{at}ksa.ch
Spatial analysis of the histoarchitecture and photographic documentation at high resolution are the principal advantages of confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) over conventional fluorescence microscopy (CFM) if combined with appropriate software. Restrictions for the use of CFM and CLSM, on the other hand, include nonspecific background fluorescence, fading of photolabile fluorochromes, and both tissue-specific and fixation-induced autofluorescence. Most of those shortcomings can now be avoided. Autofluorescence, the most limiting factor of high-resolution CLSM, was recently controlled also for paraffin sections of archival formaldehyde-fixed tissues. This allowed the present study on cytoskeletal fibers and extracellular matrix proteins in both neoplastic cells of myeloproliferative disorders and in medullary stromal cells using CLSM under proper autofluorescence control. By multiple fluorescence labeling, we found that the intracellular smooth muscle -actin (SMA) fibers and the two extracellular adhesive matrix proteins tenascin and fibronectin vary in their presence in stromal and/or myeloid cells according to the degree of bone marrow fibrosis in chronic myeloproliferative disorders (CMPDs). CLSM offers further insight in our attempts to understand a complex interplay between the two cellular compartments. (J Histochem Cytochem 52:347354, 2004)
Key Words: immunofluorescence confocal laser scanning microscopy chronic myeloproliferative disorders bone marrow fibrosis formaldehyde-fixed paraffin sections archival tissue
CONFOCAL LASER SCANNING MICROSCOPY (CLSM), unlike conventional light microscopy (CLM), is an evolving technique for photographic documentation of the third dimension in tissue studies at near-theoretical resolution (Liu et al. 1997
Paraffin blocks of bone marrow biopsy specimens fixed for 1224 hr in neutral buffered formaldehyde (4% final concentration) and decalcified overnight at room temperature (RT) in 5% trichloroacetic acid under continuous agitation were retrieved from our archival files. For the present study, five examples of CMPD, i.e., chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and idiopathic myelofibrosis (IMF, or myelofibrosis with myeloid metaplasia) at various stages of fibrosis (three CML with slight, one CML and one IMF with moderate to severe fibrosis) were selected, and cut to 8-µm-thick slides. Normal bone marrow served as control, and original conventional histochemical stains including hematoxylin and eosin, Giemsa, and Gomori's reticulin were reviewed for comparison. For removal of paraffin, the slides were immersed twice for 10 min in xylene, followed by graded ethanol (10 min in 100%, twice for 10 min in 96%, 10 min in 80%, 60 min in 70% containing 0.25% NH3, 10 min in 50% ethanol). Deparaffinized sections were transferred to modified Hanks' buffer [MHB: Hank's buffer without Ca but with the addition of 2 mM EGTA and 5 mM MES (2-morpholino-ethanesulfonic acid), preserved with 0.005% NaN3 and adjusted to pH 6.26.4] until further processing (Small and Celis 1978
The slides removed from the MHB storage buffer were treated for 30 min at 37C with hyaluronidase (1 mg/ml testicular hyaluronidase; Sigma, St Louis, MO), conditioned for 20 min in 5075 µl of MHB containing 10% swine serum (Jackson Immunoresearch; West Grove, PA) and immersed for 60 min in the primary antibody diluted in MHB. Sections were washed three or four times for 5 min with 100200 µl of MHB, incubated for 60 min with the secondary antibody diluted in 75 µl MHB, and washed as above. The primary antibodies chosen for the study of bone marrow stromal cells were directed against tenascin (1:50, polyclonal rabbit anti-chicken antibody recognizing all three isoforms of the tenascin molecule; a kind gift from M. Chiquet, ME Muller Institute, Berne, Switzerland) (Chiquet 1999
For removal of autofluorescence, immersion for 60 min in 70% ethanol supplemented with 0.25% NH3 while rehydrating deparaffinized sections in graded ethanol (see above) proved optimal if combined with Sudan Black B on fluorescence labeling (Baschong et al. 2001
The sections were viewed in a Leica TCS 4-D CLSM. Fluorescence image stacks were registered as 0.30.5-µm optical sections in parallel in the 488-nm (green) and 568-nm (red) channels. The series of differential interference contrast (DIC) was registered in a subsequent scan (Baschong et al. 2001
In normal human bone marrow, the delicate network of stromal cells was inconspicuous when examined for the presence of the extracellular matrix proteins tenascin and fibronectin, and SMA was recognized only in vascular smooth muscle cells. In CMPD, however, tenascin was found not only in delicate interstitial deposits surrounding stromal cells particularly in paratrabecular areas, but also in the cytoplasm of neoplastic myeloid cells at a stage of insignificant fibrosis (Figures 1A1D upper halves, and Figure 1E). With increasing interstitial fibrosis, tenascin appeared in a dense network, most prominent around trabecular bone (Figure 1, lower half). In CML, severe interstitial fibrosis was an occasional finding at late stages, and was characterized by tightly woven tenascin deposits (Figure 2) . In normal bone marrow, SMA was confined to smooth muscle cells of medullary vessels and was not found in myeloid cells. In myeloproliferative disorders, however, SMA became evident in paratrabecular areas but was also found in a few medullary stromal cells. This delicate pattern of distribution was observed in only a single example of CML at a stage of slight stromal fibrosis (Figure 1E). In contrast, a loose but more prominent network of stromal SMA became evident with increasing medullary fibrosis (Figure 2C). Advanced medullary fibrosis in CML was also associated with an increase of stromal cells co-expressing SMA and tenascin, although this pertained only to a minority of stromal cells (Figure 2D).
In IMF, coarse deposits of SMA were predominant in stromal cells, while paratrabecular SMA appeared rather delicate but in condensed deposits (Figure 3B) . Fibronectin in IMF, unlike tenascin, displayed a purely interstitial stromal pattern and was seen spanning parallel to osseous trabecules (Figure 3C) as well as in selected centromedullary areas (Figure 4D) . Stromal co-expression of SMA and fibronectin was located mainly in paratrabecular areas and in only a few medullary cells (Figure 3D). In contrast to tenascin, fibronectin could not be detected in single neoplastic myeloid cells (Figures 4B and 4C).
Chronic myeloproliferative disorders (CMPDs) are clonal stem cell neoplasias characterized by the proliferation of one or more hematopoietic cell lines (Remstein et al. 2000 ( INF), tumor necrosis factor- (TNF- ), interleukin 1 (IL-1), and interleukin 2 (IL-2) illustrate the complexity of myofibroblast differentiation (Desmoulière and Gabbiani 1994
Our study, focused on the cytoskeletal SMA fibers and the two extracellular matrix proteins tenascin and fibronectin, provides further proof of a close interplay between neoplastic myeloid cells and polyclonal non-neoplastic stromal cells resembling myofibroblasts (SchmittGräff et al. 1994
Tenascin has been localized in vivo and in vitro in the cytoplasm of a wide array of both mesenchymal and epithelial cells, including myofibroblasts involved in wound healing, normal and neoplastic mammary gland epithelia, oral squamous cell carcinomas, fat-storing cells of the liver, bone marrow stromal cells, and glioma cells (Van Eyken et al. 1992
SMA and fibronectin have not been detected in myeloid cells by immunofluorescence. They reflect cytoskeletal and extracellular matrix constituents of stromal cells. Differences in the distribution pattern of tenascin and fibronectin are shared with differences in the kinetics of molecule formation. Whereas the tenascin molecule is a hexamer (termed hexabrachion) and rapidly assembled with ongoing translation before transfer to the Golgi apparatus and secretion, fibronectin molecules are gradually assembled into disulfide-bonded dimers (Redick and Schwarzbauer 1995
The stromal bone marrow compartment includes various types of differentiated mesenchymal cells such as adipocytes, vascular smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, and myofibroblasts. The latter are believed to derive from a common ancestor cell and may represent various isoforms evolving on stimulation by environmental factors (SchmittGräff et al. 1994
Supported by the Swiss Cancer League grant no. SKL-00653-2-1998/KFS 962-9-1999. We acknowledge Dr L. Landmann, Institute of Anatomy, University of Basle, for the complimentary access to CLSM facilities.
Received for publication May 7, 2003; accepted October 16, 2003
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