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Trends in quantification in histochemistry and cytochemistry

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Conclusion

In this limited review, every relevant technique and many personal credits could not be included, but it is apparent that there has been a steady increase in the armamentarium of applicable techniques for quantification, each with its special uses and limitations. As the trend continues, and beyond the more obvious future which will see consolidation and extension of existing experimental approaches with an increasing use of automation and computerization, we can only guess at what new departures and remarkable innovations will emerge to provide leaps forward toward the goal—the goal of combining localization with quantitation of biological substances and activitiesin situ to reveal the chemistry, and from it the function, of the cell, its substructures and products, in the normal and altered living state.

No one would disagree with Cournand who said in the concluding remarks of his 1956 Nobel Prize lecture on the pulmonary circulation, ‘Now what of the future? Perhaps the only incontestable prophecy that can be made is that advances in methodology and advances in understanding go hand in hand.’ What we can also predict is that the quest of our goal will continue to hold fascination and excitement for those lucky enough to be involved in it.

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  1. Cancer Biology Research Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, 94305, Stanford, California, USA

    D. Glick

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Glick, D. Trends in quantification in histochemistry and cytochemistry. Histochem J 13, 227–240 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01006881

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