MICROWAVES FOR IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY

Microwaves are now widely used in immunohistochemistry for fixing and stabilizing tissue prior to embedding and cutting, for antigen retriev al and for immunoincubations. These techniques can be used For frozen sections and for material embedded in paraffin and plastic. Material p repared in this way shows high contrast in light microscopy. In princi ple, these microwave methods can also be used for electron microscopy. To be successful in the application of these techniques, insight into the physics of exposure to microwaves and the effects of microwaves o n the material is a must. Microwave immunohistochemistry depends on op timal temperature control. To guarantee this, special measures should be taken and dedicated laboratory ovens should be used. The recently d eveloped Coverplate units facilitate immunoincubations in the microwav e oven. We show that the total microwave approach, combining microwave fixation, embedding and immunoincubations, is very useful for confoca l microscopy.