High-resolution Autoradiography of Water-soluble Substances

Abstract

THE stripping-film technique of Pelc¹ for the autoradiography of radioactive substances incorporated in microscopic sections requires that the film should be put on in water. Consequently the method cannot be applied directly to the location in tissues of substances which are soluble in water. Chapman-Andresen² has kept such substances from moving by covering the tissue with a thin film of nylon or other material. This technique is suited for the restripping process in which the emulsion is separated from the tissue before development and examined separately, but is less suited to the direct simultaneous examination of the section and radiograph, which avoids the possibility of reorientation and change of scale. Although the resolution obtainable by the stripping film technique depends very critically on the distance between the tissue and the photographic emulsion, Chapman-Andresen claims that resolution is unaffected by the films used.