Microwave-aided technique to detect bromodeoxyuridine in S-phase cells using immunogold-silver staining and plastic-embedded sections.

A technique is described to detect bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporated by cells in S-phase, with a monoclonal antibody, using removable plastic embedding and immunogold-silver staining (IGSS). The incubation times were reduced and the immunological reactions enhanced by microwave irradiation. The embedding in methyl methacrylate enabled us to make thinner sections and it improved the quality of the preparations. The methyl methacrylate did not hinder the reaction of BrdU with the antibody because it could be removed prior to the IGSS procedure. The IGSS procedure appeared to be very sensitive, requiring lower concentrations of the antibodies than other methods. The use of microwave irradiation shortened the time needed to stain a section from 7 to less than 4 h. Furthermore, using microwave irradiation, the concentration of the antibodies needed could be reduced even further compared with the normal IGSS procedure. In sections of the mouse testis and small intestine only nuclei of cells known to be able to proliferate appeared BrdU positive. The non-specific background staining was found to be negligible. In testes of mice that received both 3H-thymidine and BrdU more than 95% of the radioactively labelled cells also showed BrdU label and vice versa. This indicates that both methods are equally sensitive for detecting cells in S-phase.