Ki67: from antibody to molecule to understanding?
W Ross, PA Hall - Clinical molecular pathology, 1995 - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
W Ross, PA Hall
Clinical molecular pathology, 1995•ncbi.nlm.nih.govThe monoclonal antibody Ki67 was first described in 1983 by Johannes Gerdes and
colleagues, who suggested that it might be used as a marker forproliferating cells.'Over 10
years later, immunostaining with antibodies to the Ki67 antigen is well established as a
quick and efficient method for evaluating growth fractions of various tumour types because of
its distinctive reaction patterns that exclusively involve proliferating cells. The extensive use
of Ki67 as a marker of proliferation in pathology is evidenced by the large number of …
colleagues, who suggested that it might be used as a marker forproliferating cells.'Over 10
years later, immunostaining with antibodies to the Ki67 antigen is well established as a
quick and efficient method for evaluating growth fractions of various tumour types because of
its distinctive reaction patterns that exclusively involve proliferating cells. The extensive use
of Ki67 as a marker of proliferation in pathology is evidenced by the large number of …
The monoclonal antibody Ki67 was first described in 1983 by Johannes Gerdes and colleagues, who suggested that it might be used as a marker forproliferating cells.'Over 10 years later, immunostaining with antibodies to the Ki67 antigen is well established as a quick and efficient method for evaluating growth fractions of various tumour types because of its distinctive reaction patterns that exclusively involve proliferating cells. The extensive use of Ki67 as a marker of proliferation in pathology is evidenced by the large number of citations, which is increasing year on year. The Ki67 antibody was first isolated during attemptsto raise monoclonal antibodies to antigens specific for Hodgkin and Reed-Steinberg cells.'Ki67 stood out from other antibodies produced be-cause itonly reacted with cells which were proliferating, for example cortical thymocytes and cells in the crypts of the small intestine, whereas it would show no reaction with cells which were known to be in a resting or ter-minally differentiated state, such as liver cells and neurones. Furthermore there was good evidence that cycling cells in vitro also ex-pressed the antigen. 2 The pattern of Ki67 ex-pression is not thought to be affected by DNA damage; for example, ultraviolet irradiation of cells in vitro and in vivo resulted in no visible alteration of Ki67 expression or localisation. Similarly, the induction of apoptosis appears to have no visible consequence upon Ki67 protein expression. 4 The protein is constantly present incycling cells at every stage of the cell cycle, although its presence in G, is variable. When postmitotic MCF-7 cells were analysed by fluorescence image flow cytometry there appeared to be several different patterns of Ki67 expression5:(1) nucleoplasmic staining;(2) nucleolar staining;(3) finely speckled staining;(4) no staining at all (cells which have entered Go). These staining patterns were cor-related with nuclear size to give three different types of progression through G, which could be characterised by the Ki67 expression:
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