FEULGEN AND ROSSENBECK STAINING PROCEDURE USING MICROWAVE-OVEN FOR QUANTIFICATION OF CELL-DNA IN IMAGE-ANALYSIS

A domestic microwave oven was used to modify the Feulgen staining proc edure in order to speed up the preparation of cytopathologic smears fo r the quantification of cell DNA in image analysis. This simple techni que needs some precautions concerning the temperature, the hydrolysis time and the position of staining dishes inside the oven must be taken in order to get reproducible results. Thereafter, the conventional st aining time can be reduced to 30 %. This technique can be applied to c ytopathologic smears from various tissues : bladder, prostate, breast, ovary.