Transparent polyamide: A promising new material for microscopic slides

We report the use of transparent Polyamide as a new material for microscopical slides intended to be used for immunohistochemical stainings. Polyamide slides provide a strongly increased adhesion of the sections compared to conventionally coated glass slides. They are sensitive to mechanical scratches and become turbid during deparaffinization, and revert to transparency within about eight hours. Immunohistochemical stainings for Cathepsin D for which sections from primary cutaneous melanomas are used reflect the results obtained with grass slides, providing well-preserved histology. Other possible applications for slides manufactured from Polyamide include molecular in situ-techniques, such as in situ hybridizations.