The

H&E slides were reviewed GSK2118436 chemical structure to confirm the diagnosis. The tissues removed were classified as cysts whenever a partial or total epithelium lining was present. The diagnosis of cysts was based mainly on radiographic and histopathologic examination. DC intensely inflamed and cysts with inadequate tissue samples were excluded. A total of 40 cysts were selected for the study (20 RC and 20 DC). Clinical and radiographic information, including age, gender, and anatomic site, were obtained from biopsy forms submitted by the clinicians. For immunohistochemical analysis, 3 μm thick paraffin embedded tissue sections were placed on 3-aminopropyltriethoxy-silane coated glass slides (Sigma Chemical Co., St Louis, MO, USA). The samples were deparaffinised

with xylene, rehydrated in graded alcohols, and washed in deionised water and phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Samples were then incubated with 3% hydrogen peroxide and immersed in a citrate buffer, pH 6.0 for 20 min. Sections were then blocked by incubation with 3% normal goat serum at room temperature for 20 min, and slides were incubated at 4 °C, overnight, in a humidified chamber with the following primary rabbit polyclonal antibodies: anti-OPG (N-20; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA) diluted 1:200; anti-RANK (C-20; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA) diluted 1:200; and anti-RANKL (N-19; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA) diluted 1:200. After washing FG-4592 molecular weight in TBS (tris-buffered saline), the sections were treated with a labelled streptavidin-biotin kit (LSAB; Dako, Glostrup, Denmark). Peroxidase activity was visualised by immersing tissue sections in 3,3′-diaminobenzidine (D5637; Sigma Chemical, St. Louis, MO) and counterstained with Mayer’s haematoxylin. A central giant cell granuloma was used as positive control.9 Negative controls were obtained by the omission of primary antibodies and substitution of primary antibodies by nonimmune rabbit serum (X0902; Dako). Immunoexpression of RANK, RANKL and

OPG was evaluated in lining epithelium and fibrous capsule. The epithelial immunoexpression was semiquantitatively evaluated by Baf-A1 molecular weight two observers, using 400× magnification and classified according to the scores: 0 or no staining (<10% of positive immunostaining cells), 1 or weak (11–25%), 2 or moderate (26–75%) and 3 or strong (>76%).23 In fibrous capsule, the analysis was quantitative and the number of positive cells was counted in 10 representative and consecutive microscopic high-power fields (1000×) over totally counted cells,12 irrespectively of cell type. Digital images were loaded on the software IMAGE J® (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA) 24 to count the number of immunostained cells. Results are expressed as the mean percentage of observations per field, with the following modifications.