Histologic® Celebrates Its Reviewed Predictions That Had Been Have Not Changed Much; Microtomy 30Th Anniversary! Over the Years It Made for the 1970-1980 Decade
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HISTOLOGIC ® T echnical Bulletin for Histotechnology Vol. XXXIV, No. 2, Nov. 2001 it has made a difference in spread- web site at www.sakuraus.com. 30 Years and Still ing valuable information to histo- It is interesting to realize that some Going Strong technologists and pathologists of the same conclusions made then around the world. also apply today. Faster, more Vinnie Della Speranza automated processing systems are Scientific Editor In 1981 for this publication’s 10th not yet here; automated stainers are anniversary, Lee G. Luna, editor, now widely used, but their principles This year HistoLogic® celebrates its reviewed predictions that had been have not changed much; microtomy 30th anniversary! Over the years it made for the 1970-1980 decade. has not evolved significantly except has been read by close to 1,000,000 The original article can be retrieved for the more widespread use of people worldwide. We believe that from the Sakura Finetek U.S.A. motorized units. 21 There have been advances, how- times are critical in advancing ever, with automated coverslippers. The Golden Age technology and histologic technique. For example, by using the Tissue- Barry R. J. Rittman, PhD Tek ® SCA™ Film Coverslipper, Much of the work being carried out slides can be viewed sooner under My perspective is largely colored today is based on the discoveries the microscope, thanks to the fast by my training as a medical labora- made in the 18th and 19th centuries. drying time. The fact that it cover- tory technologist and histologist in It was not until the 1820s that slips one slide every 3 seconds also England and the United States, microscope lenses which corrected helps! Slide labeling now can be including my training in electron for chromatic aberration were being done without using paper labels manufactured, usually on a custom microscopy and image analysis, and 1 and practical bar-coding is on the my teaching in histology and basis. Slides used in the 18th and horizon. Other areas of rapid histologic technique. This is a early 19th centuries were made of growth are immunohistochemistry somewhat different perspective ivory with a central hole; the and in situ hybridization. than for most histotechnologists. specimen was covered on both surfaces with small pieces of mica. What progress will be made over By the 1830s, glass plates were in the next 10 years? From the devel- use. These were often known as slides "1 ן "opment of the very first microscope, sliders. The standard 3 histopathology became a discipline still in use today were recommended largely of visual images. (Be sure to by the Microscopical Society of read “ The Golden Age” in this London around 1839. Cover glasses issue.) Diagnosis continues to rest were starting to be made thinner by upon interpretation of those very the mid-1800s. In 1855, Chance images, in their spectacular color, manufactured cover glasses, but it which is the hallmark of what we was left to Beale in 1880 to produce do in the laboratory. With the ever cover glasses that were thin enough increasing sophistication of com- to take advantage of the high dry puters, and as imaging devices objectives then being manufactured.1 become easier to operate with better quality and cheaper price By 1840, the major cell structures tags (see “ Histology and Digital such as mitochondria and chromo- Imaging — Present and Future Most technologies have a golden somes had been discovered and both Technologies” in this issue), the age— an era when advances are mitosis and meiosis described. The days of pulling (and refiling) glass continually being made which activity of cells in embryology, ferti- slides for conferences, tumor board, significantly move that technology lization, pathology, and physiology or teaching may well be behind us. forward. What do we consider to be was the subject of investigation at How long will it be before the glass the golden age of histologic tech- about this time. The concept of fixa- slide becomes relegated to the nique? Depending on outlook, tion was not yet developed but museum display case? some might believe it to be the tissues were “ hardened” in alcohol, 19th century when independent chromic acid, and formalin. There are strong indications that work by “ gentlemen scientists” Bracegirdle cites the following dates automation of the embedding developed early methods for for the introduction of substances process will become reality in the examining tissues which still form for either hardening or fixing tissues: near future. Faster, more efficient the basis of much of our current alcohol 1743; mercuric chloride 1846; processing technologies are also at histology work. Others might look potassium dichromate 1860; picric the testing stage. This could lead to acid 1879; Bouin’s fixative 1897; and at the developments within the past 2 drastic changes to the workflow of two decades and suggest that the formaldehyde 1893. routine anatomic pathology explosive technological develop- laboratories. I can only wonder if ment that has taken place now puts Despite the scarcity of stains prior to today’s sophisticated motorized us in the middle of an exciting the 1850s, there are several publica- microtomes are paving the way for golden age. Still others, in trying to tions with very detailed histology a day when instruments will be able look ahead, may think that the which came from meticulous to section tissue at high speed golden age is yet to come— that we observations of unstained tissues. without human intervention. are merely the pathfinders for van Leeuwenhoek is credited with ensuring the advance of histologic using the first stain, where he showed Since HistoLogic is here to stay for contrasting muscle fibers with technology.All are correct in their 2 many years to come, it will be fun own way and only vary in percep- saffron around 1714-1719. In the to revisit these predictions in 2010. tion. It is certain that specific key early years of microscopy, carmine events and discoveries at optimal and indigo were the most commonly 22 used stains, starting around 1850. I began working in an oral histo- sections for frozen section diagnosis. Aniline dyes were not readily pathology laboratory in London, While freezing microtomes using available until 1856 and many of England, in 1957, transferred to the liquid carbon dioxide was in com- these were adapted from the dyeing University of Iowa in 1968, and then mon use, the cryostat allowed for of fabrics. However, stains provided a to the University of Texas in 1989. both the preparation of sequential technological leap forward allowing While in London, pathologic speci- sections that remained frozen and distinctions between tissue com- mens had to be produced in a timely the comparison of histochemistry on ponents whose existence up to that manner but there was ample time unfixed sections with those fixed by time had been controversial. 3-5 for study, reflection, experimentation various other methods. Some interesting observations can with new and old methods, and be found in documents from the late personal training. Technicians Image analysis and three- 19th century.The book by Miller carried out all the histology, histo- dimensional reconstruction were (1887) opines, “ nine-tenths of the chemistry, electron microscopy, carried out routinely using a microtomes are purchased because museum technique, and tea making. camera lucida and a pencil, pro- of failure in free hand work with a jecting images on flat sheets of wax. dull knife.” 6 Miller used free-hand This was an exciting time, when new In this way individual features sectioning and hardening agents discoveries about the structure and could be traced, and by cutting such as alcohol and chromic acid. physiology of the cell were being these out and sticking sequential Teeth were decalcified in chromic made on a regular basis. The sections together, a three- acid. Sections were produced by electron microscope explored anew dimensional reconstruction was infiltrating from alcohol into the structure of cells and tissue, and prepared. Some reconstructions Bayberry tallow or in celloidin. in many ways its application of individual enamel spindles Wax sections were collected in paralleled the use of the optical produced in this manner are still benzol and treated as free-floated microscope in the 19th century. regarded as classic examples. The sections. Staining was done with Along with the use of the electron amount of work in tracing hundreds hematoxylin and eosin, borax car- microscope came the need for or thousands of features in serial mine, or carmine plus picric acid, improved techniques to visualize sections can only be imagined. and sections were dehydrated and tissue, as well as the development of Stereology by manual analysis of permanently mounted. The per- ultramicrotomes, glass knives, new individual images provided valuable manence of some of these tech- processing techniques, electron information but again was niques is seen in a section (that I dense stains, and histochemical exceedingly time-consuming. possess) from 1861 of cerebellum techniques that were applicable stained with borax carmine in which specifically for electron microscopy. Tissue had always been processed the details are still crystal clear. A point of interest here is that manually.An automatic processing Weigert’s method for myelin and Gustav Mann recommended the use machine, known as the Auto- Gram’s stain are also from this of glass knives to prevent contam- technicon, was described in 19092; period (1884). Metallic impreg- ination of sections that would be 8 nations using silver and gold salts tested for the presence of iron. Managing Editor, Gilles Lefebvre were used by some investigators A useful reference in the early Scientific Editor, Vinnie Della Speranza, during this era. development of electron microscopy MS, HTL (ASCP) HT, MT instrumentation and techniques is By 1890, optical microscopes had Hall.9 The general belief was that reached the level of theoretical the improved resolution of the IN THIS ISSUE resolution using transmitted light.