ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ZINK-ETHANOL-FORMALDEHYDE AS A FIXATIVE FOR IMMUNOCYTO CHEMISTRY AND CONFOCAL LASER MICROSCOPY
The paper presents an analysis of authors' results obtained using fixation of various tissues in zink-ethanol-formaldehyde (ZEF). It was found that fixation in ZEF, in comparison with other methods of fixation, allowed to achieve higher sensitivity of immunocytochemical reaction for a large number of antigens studied and, in many cases, to avoid heat unmasking of antigens. It also provided high resolution of the images obtained using the fluorescent and confocal laser microscopy. However, the studies of antigens with small molecular mass revealed the antigen diffusion from the site of original localization. The data obtained suggest that fixation of a material in ZEF fixative is promising for both immunocytochemical studies, including those using the fluorescent and confocal laser microscopy, and general histological practice.