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Significance of wet autoclave pretreatment in immunohistochemistry

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Pathology & Oncology Research

Abstract

Until recently the only way to rescue masked epitopes in routinely processed surgical pathological material was enzymatic digestion. The use of heat for antigen retrieval, first by microwave irradiation, represents an important breakthrough in immunohistochemistry. With the acceptance of microwave oven pretreatment, various modified techniques and alternative heating methods have also been proposed. Wet autoclave pretreatment for tissue proteolysis is a highly reliable alternative to the microwave antigen retrieval technique. It provides uniform heating of the slides, hence an even enhancement of staining intensity in a variety of formalin-sensitive antigens, and it also offers consistent interlaboratory results. The method has been introduced in routine diagnostic immunohistochemistry for the detection of estrogen-and progesterone receptors, L26-, Ki-67- and bcl-2 antigens and variable types of cytokeratins (1/5/10/11, 8, 13, 19). Experimentally, wet autoclaving can be used very successfully for the immunophenotyping of p53 and mdm2 expression, for the detection of adhesion molecules (CD44, integrins) and some anti-inflammatory molecules (annexins), among others. It has produced a substantial improvement in the visualisation of silver-stained nucleolar organizer regionsassociated proteins (AgNORs) in routine paraffin sections and along with modified silver staining and standardized AgNOR parameters assessed by image analysis. Wet autoclaving-based AgNOR staining has been proposed by a European multicentric study group as the standardized method for AgNOR analysis in archival material.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gerhard Domagk Institut für Pathologie, University of Münster, Germany

    Ágnes Bánkfalvi, Rita Dreier, Werner Böcker & Kurt Werner Schmid MD

  2. Department of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Münster, Germany

    József Piffkó

  3. Department of Surgery I, University Hospital, Innsbruck, Austria

    Dietmar Öfner

Authors
  1. Ágnes Bánkfalvi
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  2. József Piffkó
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  3. Dietmar Öfner
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  4. Rita Dreier
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  5. Werner Böcker
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  6. Kurt Werner Schmid MD
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Bánkfalvi, Á., Piffkó, J., Öfner, D. et al. Significance of wet autoclave pretreatment in immunohistochemistry. Pathol. Oncol. Res. 2, 71–77 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02893955

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02893955

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