Histochemical demonstration of enzyme activities in plastic and paraffin embedded tissue sections

Abstract

Histochemical staining for enzymes is usually performed on frozen sections. This report lists the longer incubation times required to demonstrate esterase, acid phosphatase, beta-galactosidase, and cytochrome oxidase in plastic embedded and ruotine paraffin embedded tissues. The sections embedded in plastic, i.e. water soluble methacrylate (Polyscience's JB-4) and cut at 2 micrometers, were far superior to frozen sections and paraffin embedded sections both in tissue detail and in the localization of the histochemical reaction product.