title: The effect of a series of fixatives on the AgNOR technique.
abstract: With increasing interest being shown in nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) in pathology, it was considered of great importance to evaluate the effect of some of the more commonly used and more specialized fixatives on the demonstration of these moieties. NORs can be demonstrated in paraffin sections by a silver technique (AgNOR method) which was developed from a method used by cytogeneticists for the demonstration of NORs in chromosome spreads. The degree of staining is dependent on the fixation regime employed and results may vary greatly from one fixative to another. The fixative schedules and post-treatments used in this study were based on standard sequences from the literature. We have shown that, in general, alcohol-based fixatives give optimal results, Carnoy's fluid being especially recommended. Mercurial and dichromate-containing fixatives were found to have highly detrimental effects on NOR staining. 'Routine' 10 per cent formol saline fixation gave adequate results whereas 10 per cent neutral buffered formalin gave optimal staining, similar to alcohol-based fixation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Histopathology, East Birmingham Hospital, U.K.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Skilbeck
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crocker
mesh_terms: D005404:Fixatives; D006652:Histological Techniques; D006801:Humans; D009697:Nucleolus Organizer Region / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D014066:Palatine Tonsil / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012835:Silver Nitrate; D014021:Tissue Preservation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005404:Fixatives; D012835:Silver Nitrate