An immunohistochemical study of the distribution of epithelial antigens in the uterine cervix.

Neoplastic and nonneoplastic tissue from human uterine cervixes was stained immunohistochemically for three epithelial antigens--epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and cytoplasmic keratin. Anti-EMA serum stained four of 21 nonneoplastic cases and all cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) (25) and invasive carcinoma (16); CEA was positive in six of ten of the nonneoplastic specimens, 19 of 23 CIN specimens, and six of seven invasive carcinomas tested. Cytoplasmic keratin did not survive fixation in formal saline and for this antigen tissue had to be fixed in methacarn; all the tissues examined were positive.