Immunopath

Immunopath may help pathologists in their tedious task of counting cells

Immunopath's simple three step process. 1. Load and select an image. Draw the area to be analyzed. 2. Select one or more samples. Run analysis. 3. Review and save results

IHC

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is one of the most widely-used diagnostic procedures in modern medicine. The method is based on specific antibodies binding to specific antigens or proteins in histological tissue. The presence of proteins in cells or tissue can be quantified, leading to diagnosis and prognosis for patients.

Pathologists spend numerous hours training to be able to recognize immunohistochemical patterns. Considerable experience is required to interpret the results, and nevertheless the method is challenged by subjective variance among observers. We had the need for an efficient, automated, objective and reproducible system, so we created ImmunoPath.

ImmunoPath is a collaborative project within CCB, developed in a joint effort by pathologists, medical researchers, lab workers and digital software developers. This has resulted in an application for visualization and quantification of sections stained with various antibodies.

Immunopath Analysis Examples. 1. Field fraction analysis clearly shows positive and negative nuclei. This can be used to extract tumor areas for further analysis. 2. Formalin fixed paraffin embedded tumor tissue stained for Polo like kinase 1 (nuclei), counterstained with hematoxilin. 3. Based on the automated Immunopath analysis, the Ki-67-positive nuclei are indicated by green dots, negatives are red..

Method

• The tissue is sectioned in thin slices and stained with the chosen antibody. Hematoxylin is used to stain the surrounding tissue to expose the tissue architecture. The section is scanned and the digital image opened in ImmunoPath.
• ImmunoPath settings are adjusted for the specific analysis:
  • The area for protein expression: nucleus, cytoplasm, and/or cell membrane
  • Stroma content can be removed from the analysis
• ImmunoPath quantifies the number of cells with positive and negative staining, and calculates a score based on the settings.

Interested in the Immunopath software?

This system is commercially available through Room4 Group Limited, England.