Patent ID: 7279292

Claim:
A method for identifying low grade astrocytoma cells in a biological sample, comprising the steps of: preparing slides from a biological sample; serially incubating said biological sample in at least ethanol and hydrogen peroxide; heating said slides in an unmasking solution including a mixture of at least sodium citrate and citric acid; incubating the biological sample with anti-J1-31 antibody under conditions in which the antibody binds to J1-31 antigen in the sample, said anti-J1-31 antibody being produced by the hybridoma cell line J1-31, ATCC designation number CRL-2253; contacting the biological sample with a secondary antibody selected so as to form an immune complex with the anti-J1-31 antibody bound to J1-31 antigen; detecting cells expressing the J1-31 antigen by detecting the immune complex; and detecting astrocytes in the sample in which the immune complex is not present, to thereby identify low-grade astrocytoma cells.