ABSTRACT
The purpose of autoradiography is to locate radioactive material in a specimen with the help of photography. Whereas with the Geiger counter, an electronic wave is measured by an electrical device, in autoradiography, the radioactive material is detected by a photographic process of development. The different steps followed in autoradiography are: administration of the tracer into the tissue; fixation; paraffin embedding or smearing; staining; application of the photographic emulsion; drying; exposure, and photographic process. Since the pioneering work of Liquier-Milward on the combined use of electron microscopy and autoradiography on tumour cells, high resolution autoradiography has proved to be an effective tool in the study of ultrastructure as correlated with function. To the need to predict the exposure time for ultra thin sections, light microscopy is required to obtain a demarcated picture of the area to be studied in ultra thin sections.
