MIB1, A PROMISING MARKER FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF CERVICAL INTRAEPITHELIAL NEOPLASIA

Formalin‐fixed and paraffin‐embedded tissue specimens of normal and dysplastic cervical epithelia (five CIN1, seven CIN2, five CIN3, and five normal) were assessed by an immunoperoxidase technique, using the monoclonal antibody MIB1, regonizing a formalin‐fixation‐resistant epitope on the cell proliferation‐associated Ki‐67 antigen. An image analysis system was used to measure four parameters associated with proliferative activity: the Ki‐67 labelling index (LI), the number of Ki‐67‐positive nuclei per unit length of basement membrane, and the maximum value and 90th percentile of the relative distances of Ki‐67‐positive nuclei from the basement membrane. All these four proliferation‐related parameters were highly correlated with the grade of dysplastic change in the epithelium (0·90