Quantitation of immunoglobulin- and peptide hormone-producing cells in gastrointestinal mucosa. Comparison of direct immunofluorescence and the unlabelled antibody peroxidase--antiperoxidase method.

Direct immunofluorescence (DIF) and the unlabelled antibody peroxidase--antiperoxidase (PAP) methods were compared on a quantitative basis with regard to visualization of IgA immunocytes and gastrin cells in human gastric mucosa, and secretin cells in canine duodenal mucosa. With both DIF and PAP, two serial sections from 13 biopsy specimens were evaluated for each cell type--thus keeping tissue preparation the same with both staining methods. The three cell types were well visualized regardless of method, and there was no significant difference between cell numbers recorded with the DIF or PAP. When blind duplicate counts were obtained with an interval of three weeks, comparisons of weighted differences and the Kendall's rank correlation test indicated good precision; the reproducibility of duplicate enumerations with each method was comparable to that between the two methods. It was concluded that DIF and PAP are equally applicable for studies of these three cell types under the conditions used in this investigation.