Morphometry and immunocytochemistry.

The use of morphometry (and stereology), especially in conjunction with immunocytochemistry, in surgical and experimental pathology is reviewed. The combined use of morphometry and immunocytochemistry permits the study of secretory products and the distinction between cells that produce them, e.g., as in the pancreas. Several examples to illustrate the application of immunocytochemical techniques in morphometry are presented. For example, using this approach on the pancreas, it was shown that not only B cells, but also A and D cells, seem to undergo pathologic changes in a prediabetic organism. Since morphologic alterations may be distributional as well as quantitative, a model for the assessment and statistical evaluation of the distribution of objects within an area is discussed. Similar procedures were used to analyze the distribution of cytochrome P-450 molecules along intracellular membranes; however, special labeling techniques were necessary for this quantification in the electron microscope. Immunoenzyme cytochemically stained secretions can also be studied morphometrically, and microdensitometry and microfluorometry can also be used to quantify immunocytochemical reactions, as is shown in the analysis of the intralobular distribution of NADPH-cytochrome P-450 reductase in the rat liver. Finally, the BIVAS semiautomatic system for morphometric measurements, developed at the Department of Pathology of the University of Basel, is briefly described.