Approach to automation in immunohistochemistry

The introduction of immunochemical techniques into the routine pathology la boratory has significantly expanded the capabilities of the pathologist in diagnostic procedures. Immunostaining represents a powerful diagnostic tool in the identification and localization of cellular antigens, in paraffin s ections, frozen tissues and cell preparations. The labeled-streptavidin-bio tin method provides excellent sensitivity and performance. This multistep p rocedure includes: incubation of the slide with primary antibody, reaction with the biotinylated secondary antibody, binding with an enzyme conjugated streptavidin and revelation with chromogen substrate. Evaluation of the fi nished product is directly dependent on the quality of the technique. The m ain critical steps of this manual method are reagents application, incubati on times and rinsing. These steps could be accessible to automation. Automa tion in immunohistochemistry could guarantee a continuous quality of labell ing in improving standardisation, optimization and traceability of operatio ns. The required qualifications are analytical flexibility, low cost, walka way operation, user-friendly interface and biosafety. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.