Walter E. Stumpf

Brain Localization of Hormones and Drugs by Thawmount Autoradiography, Combined Autoradiography-Formaldehyde Induced Fluorescence, and Combined Autoradiography-Immunohistochemistry

Autoradiography is an important technique for the localization of hormones and drugs. No reliable method was available for the cellular and subcellular localization of non-covalently-bound substances before 1964, when Stumpf and Roth developed the dry-mount autoradiography technique (Stumpf and Roth 1964). Diffusible substances are generally of small molecular weight that include metal ions, amino acids, steroid hormones, and most drugs. Liquid fixatives, dehydration fluids, embedding media, and other fluids commonly used for the preparation of histological sections must be considered a source of translocation and leaching of diffusible substances. Only exceptionally can fixatives be found that interlink such molecules with other tissue constituents at their in vivo sites of deposition, so that translocation during fixation and subsequent treatment can be excluded.