Dear Daisy Narayan,

Google probably referred you to in item in
the "Notes and Queries" section of the journal
Biotechnic & Histochemistry. The item on
suppressing autofluorescence is in Vol 77
(for 2002).  Biotechnic & Histochemistry is the
oldest English language journal in the field of
histotechnology, dating from 1925. The name was 
changed from Stain Technology in the early 1990s.
A year's subscription to Biotechnic & Histochemistry 
costs about the same as 1.0ml of an antiserum (less
than $200 for 6 issues). 

You write anonymously, but clearly from an academic
institution in the USA (... unr.edu).

If your library no longer takes B&H please persuade
them to renew their subscription, at least for the
on-line (web) version. This comes as part of a
large package of journals from the publisher
Taylor & Francis. You may well have access already,
without knowing it. Check out
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/
You should be able to get the full text of the item
if your library subscribes. 

If you cannot find the "suppressing autofluorescence"
item, ask your library to subscribe.  Or take out a
lab subscription to B&H. Nearly every issue of B&H  
contains something to interest everyone who works 
with tissues and microscopes, in a wide range of fields.
If this seems like a sales pitch, it isn't. I have had
a personal subscription to the journal since the 1970s
(when the sub was about $50) and have had good value 
for money every year. Relative to inflation and cost 
of living, B&H is cheaper now than in earlier years.
The quality has improved. Nearly all staining-related
papers in B&H now have coloured illustrations. 

If you have difficulty obtaining the autofluorescence
item, let me know. I can send you a .pdf file of that
set of Notes & Queries. It includes anecdotal tips and
references for various strategies. There is no way to
cope with autofluorescence problems without using a
big textbook (Pearse is the only big one in English)
or an afternoon in a library, or both. Don't believe
anything you read on the Web about autofluorescence 
until you have checked references to papers in peer
reviewed journals. Biotechnic & Histochemistry is a
peer-reviewed journal. Another, with even higher
standards, is the Journal of Histochemistry and
Cytochemistry. This is also inexpensive and it comes 
out every month. Both journals are published by non-profit 
societies. Any lab can subscribe to both for less than 
$400 a year. 

John Kiernan
London, Canada.

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