Comparison of the effects of different antigen retrieval methods on immunohistochemical staining

Objective To study the effects of different antigen retrieval methods on immunohis-tochemical staining of esophageal carcinoma tissues. Methods Four different antigens, Ki67, IL17, CD4 and CD8, were respectively located in the nucleus, cytoplasm and cell membrane as markers for immunohistochemical staining. The effects of high-pressure antigen retrieval and microwave antigen retrieval on immunohistochemical staining serial section of esophageal carcinoma were comparably analyzed, Results The high-pressure antigen retrieval is better than the microwave antigen retrieval. On the one hand, the positive rate of stained CD4 by high-pressure antigen retrieval was higher than that of microwave antigen retrieval; On the other hand, there were no significant differences in the positive rates of stained CD8, Ki-67 and IL-17 between the high-pressure antigen retrieval and the microwave antigen retrieval. Conclusion High-pressure antigen retrieval was preferred choice when organization is not easy in the case of off-chip. Taking into account that some cancer tissues are unstable under high pressure, the gentler microwave antigen retrieval method would be a better choice when there are no significant differences in the positive rates of stained antigens between the high-pressure antigen retrieval and the microwave antigen retrieval. Key words: Immunohistochemistry;  Antigen retrieval;  High-pressure antigen retrieval;  Micro-wave antigen retrieval