Abstract
This issue of the Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry (JHC) marks the first in my tenure as Editor-in-Chief. JHC is the official journal of The Histochemical Society, “an organization of scientists devoted to the study of cell and tissue biology with molecular and morphological techniques” (http://www.histochemicalsociety.org). Under the remarkable leadership of just four Editors in over 50 years of publication, Ralph D. Lillie, Tibor Barka, Paul J. Anderson, and Denis G. Baskin, the JHC has consistently met its goal of publishing new histochemical and cytochemical methods and original research in which such techniques have made an important contribution. During the past 10 years, under Denis Baskin's guidance, the breadth of topics covered by the JHC has expanded to include not just cell and tissue biology but pathology, neuroscience, embryology, anatomy, and microscopy. This broad focus has been critical to the JHC's evolution from a “techniques-only” journal into a forum for publishing important biomedical research advances.
As I begin my term as Editor-in-Chief and reflect upon the field of histochemistry and cytochemistry in general and the JHC in particular, I am excited about the future. Too often in the recent past, histochemical and cytochemical investigations have been dismissed as “descriptive” and lacking in “mechanistic insights.” This is not a new problem and was elegantly commented upon over 40 years ago by two previous Editors of the JHC, Tibor Barka and Paul Anderson, who wrote “The popular view that Histochemistry is a prosperous union of histology and biochemistry is misleading. Conflicting estimates of the value and limitation of the histochemical approach have obscured the problem and have placed the histochemist in an uncomfortably defensive position, somewhere between the Panglossian contention of the descriptive morphologist that histochemistry is good for all things and the Diogenic conviction of the analytic biochemist that it is good for nothing” (Barka and Anderson 1963).
The value of histochemistry lies somewhere between the Panglossian contention and the Diogenic conviction and critically depends upon the rigor and imagination of the investigator applying the tools of histochemistry and cytochemistry. It is my opinion that we are entering a new era of scientific investigation when so-called “mechanistic” advances will be required to undergo critical in vivo testing to determine their true biological relevance. The field of histochemistry and cytochemistry is poised to meet this important mission.
The goal of the JHC is to publish significant advances in molecular detection techniques and their application to biologically meaningful hypotheses. Manuscripts are invited from all fields of cell biology including developmental biology, neurobiology, pathology, and immunology. Manuscripts in which histochemical and cytochemical techniques are complemented by modern genetic, molecular, and biochemical approaches will be given highest publication priority. The JHC will strive to rapidly and fairly review all manuscript submissions, and I have assembled a superb Editorial Board selected based on their expertise in histochemical and cytochemical techniques as applied to their respective scientific disciplines. With the assistance of the outgoing Editor-in-Chief, Denis G. Baskin, who will continue to provide advice and council as Executive Editor, a talented and committed group of Associate Editors, expert Editorial Board members, and a publication staff of remarkably talented individuals, I am convinced that the JHC can ascend the ranks of biomedical research journals and provide a forum for studies of gene expression and function from which mechanistic-based hypothesis will arise.