To validate the use of the tissue microarray (TMA) method for immunophenotyping of ferret
lymphomas, a TMA was constructed containing duplicate 1-mm cores sampled from 112
paraffin-embedded
lymphoma tissue specimens obtained from 43 ferret
lymphoma cases. Immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of CD3, CD79alpha, and Ki-67 (MIB-1) was determined by TMA and whole mount (WM) staining of each individual case for result comparison. There was a high correlation between CD79alpha and CD3 results comparing ferret TMA and WM sections (kappa statistic 0.71-0.73 for single-core TMA and 0.79-0.95 for duplicate-core TMA) and between continuous data from Ki-67 staining of ferret TMA sections and WM sections (concordance correlation coefficients 0.77 for single cores and 0.87 for duplicate cores). Subsequently, a panel of commercially available
antibodies was applied to the TMA for the analysis of expression in ferret
lymphomas. The results of this study confirmed previously published results suggesting specific cross-reactivity of the applied IHC markers (CD3, CD79alpha, Ki67) with ferret
lymphoma tissue. Other IHC markers (CD45Ro, bcl2, bcl10, MUM1, CD30,
vimentin) were also expressed in subsets of the included ferret
lymphomas. Further studies are necessary to determine the usefulness of these markers for diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of ferret
lymphomas. In conclusion, the TMA technology was useful for rapid and accurate analysis of
protein expression in large archival cohorts of ferret
lymphoma cases.