Immunohistochemical demonstration of complement components in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded renal tissues.

Although there are many articles describing the detection of complement components in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded renal tissues, it is still difficult to obtain reproducible results. The authors determined the optimal conditions for detecting complement components in routine paraffin sections by the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex method and concluded that proteolytic digestion of the deparaffinized sections was crucial to detect complement and to preserve tissue structures. The optimal proteolytic digestion was a 15-minute incubation at 37 degrees C in trypsin solution, 0.5 mg/ml, pH 7.6. Under these conditions, all of the complement components so far studied (C1q, C1s, C4, C3c, C3b, C5, C6, C9, and properdin) were detected without significant destruction of tissue structures in 52 renal biopsy specimens from patients with various forms of glomerulonephritis. Immunohistochemistry using the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex method was equivalent to indirect immunofluorescence and superior to direct immunofluorescence in utility and was useful in the diagnosis of glomerular diseases.