ASSESSMENT OF KI-67 AND PCNA MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES AS PROLIFERATIVE ACTIVITY MARKERS IN PARAFFIN SECTIONS OF HUMAN BONE MARROW BIOPSIES

Ki-67 and PCNA monoclonal antibodies, which are said to be useful in assessing the proliferative activity of either normal or tumoral cells, were studied in 27 bone marrow biopsies obtained from the same number of patients. The patients had undergone bone marrow biopsy because of the suspicion of either a primary or metastatic tumour or a nonneoplastic hematological disorder, but the biopsies revealed a disease-free normocellular bone marrow in all of the cases. Immunostaining was performed with both of the antibodies, and the data obtained by counting the Ki-67 and PCNA stained cells in 1000 neighbouring cells with x1000 immersion objective by two pathologists was analysed statistically by means of Mann-Whitney rank sum test. It was noticable that the megakaryocytes and the earlier forms of erythrocytic and granulocytic series may be stained with both of the antibodies while the other cells did not. Labelling indices of Ki-67 and PCNA monoclonal antibodies were found as %8.22±7.22 (SEM=1.390) and %34.33±14.67 (SEM=2.823), respectively, and the difference between the labelling indices of two antibodies was found to be statistically significant (P<0.001).