Approach to automation in immunohistochemistry

The introduction of immunochemical techniques into the routine pathology laboratory has significantly expanded the capabilities of the pathologist in diagnostic procedures. Immunostaining represents a powerful diagnostic tool in the identification and localization of cellular antigens, in paraffin sections, frozen tissues and cell preparations. The labeled-streptavidin-biotin method provides excellent sensitivity and performance. This multistep procedure includes: incubation of the slide with primary antibody, reaction with the biotinylated secondary antibody, binding with an enzyme conjugated streptavidin and revelation with chromogen substrate. Evaluation of the finished product is directly dependent on the quality of the technique. The main critical steps of this manual method are reagents application, incubation times and rinsing. These steps could be accessible to automation. Automation in immunohistochemistry could guarantee a continuous quality of labelling in improving standardisation, optimization and traceability of operations. The required qualifications are analytical flexibility, low cost, walkaway operation, user-friendly interface and biosafety.