Abstract
During recent years several autoradiographic methods, particularly adapted for certain tissues and certain radioactive substances, have been developed. However, previous to the work of Hoecker and Roofe ( 1 ), none had been developed for bone which permitted exact correlation between the microscopic structure of bone and the alpha-particle track image of the radioactive substance in the bone after the bone section was removed during processing. In order to study the distribution and concentration of radium metabolically deposited in bone, it is necessary that certain very definite requirements be fulfilled by the autoradiographic technic. ( 1 ) It must permit the bone sections to be removed from the nuclear track emulsion during photographic processing and thus prevent the bone section from coming into contact with the processing solutions. ( 2 ) It must permit the bone sections to be removed from the nuclear track emulsion during the making of photomicrographs of the alpha-particle track pattern. (3) It must permit the bone sections to be returned exactly to their original positions on the nuclear track plate at any desired time.
The undecalcified bone sections are cut on a special apparatus (Fig. 1 of ref. 2) and then mounted on one end of 1 inch × 3 inch plastic cover slips∗ with Canada balsam. Before the bone sections are mounted, a rectangular section ¼ inch × 1 inch is cut out of the center of each cover slip in such a manner that the long axis of the cutout is parallel to the long axis of the cover slip. The purpose of this cutout is to concentrate the bending of the cover slip in the region of the cutout portion and thus relieve the strain on the bone sections when the cover slip is bent.
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