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PubMedDate not supplied

Notes on the application of microwaves for antigen retrieval in paraffin and plastic tissue sections.

In formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue enhanced or de novo immunostaining can be obtained by microwave boiling of sections in a metal salt or buffer solution. In this paper this new technique is reviewed and important factors influencing final results are discussed. Microwave antigen retrieval can also be applied for immunohistochemistry on plastic GMA sections. Here the action of the microwave method is probably mainly due to breaking the bonds between GMA and proteins prohibiting immunostaining. The microwave methods do not require trypsin treatment.

Aluminum Chloride↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Confocal sectioning of thick, otherwise undiagnosable cell groupings in cervical smears.

Confocal sectioning of thick, otherwise undiagnosable cell groupings in cervical smears results in detailed visualization of the diagnostic features of neoplastic fragments in the original Cytobrush smear. We argue that the large step forward due to confocal microscopy is the dramatic improvement of axial resolution, resulting in images with a high degree of detail. As a result, mitotic figures, chromatin patterns and glandular spaces materialize out of the blur. When the serial confocal sections are compared to the parallel thin, plastic sections, some differences in the images are observed mainly due to the absence of infiltration by plastic. This study showed that the confocal microscope can be very useful in the diagnostic laboratory because the information extracted from a sample containing these otherwise undiagnosable cell groupings is enhanced to such a degree that a final diagnosis can be made with confidence, maximizing the benefit of the sampling and thus increasing its value.

Cervix Uteri↗