title: Immunoelectron microscopy on material retrieved from paraffin: accurate sampling on the basis of stained paraffin sections.
abstract: As a rule, immunoelectron microscopy (immuno-EM) is performed on fresh material processed according to specialized methods (e.g., freezing or embedding in hydrophilic resins). Paraffin-embedded tissue has only occasionally been used as a source of material for immuno-EM; this was usually as a last resort, when no fresh material was available. The authors used archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded basal cell carcinomas for studying the fine-structural distribution of the cell surface molecule CD44 and its variants, as well as some other antigens. The results demonstrate, firstly, that paraffin-embedded material is far more suitable for immuno-EM than frequently assumed and, secondly, that the use of paraffin-embedded material enables highly accurate sampling on the basis of immunohistochemically or conventionally stained light microscopic sections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. k.p.dingemans@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Dingemans
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramkema
mesh_terms: D002280:Basal Cell Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006801:Humans; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors / Q000378:metabolism; D016253:Microscopy, Immunoelectron; D016612:Paraffin Embedding / Q000592:standards; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure*
chemical_list: D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors