Usefulness of a novel monoclonal antibody against human osteocalcin in immunohistochemical diagnosis

Summary A novel monoclonal antibody against human osteocalcin, recently established in our laboratory, was shown by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry to react specifically with human osteoblasts. In the present study, the antibody was applied to the immunohistochemical diagnosis of human bone tumours, especially osteoblastic tumours. The antibody reacted with all 27 osteosarcomas. No positive reaction was found either in chondrosarcoma, giant cell tumours of bone, soft tissue tumours or epithelial tumours. A positive reaction was found preferentially in the cytoplasm of most of the osteosarcoma cells, but not in the extracellular matrix. Since the antibody reacted with formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues, it will be a useful tool for routine immunohistochemical diagnosis of osteoblastic lesions.