Determining the concentration of an analyte in a histological preparation, e.g. enzymes or substrates in tissue samples comprises recording sequential images to determine the maximum rate of change of an optical property

摘要

Determining the concentration of an analyte (A) in a histological preparation (P) comprises contacting (P) with reagents that cause an optical property of (P) to change at a rate that varies over time as a function of activity of (A), recording and comparing sequential images of (P) using a camera to determine the maximum rate of change and the concentration of (A). Determining the concentration of a biologically active analyte in a histological preparation comprises: (a) placing the preparation in front of a camera; (b) contacting the preparation with reagents that cause an optical property of the preparation to change at a rate that varies over time as a function of the activity of the analyte; (c) recording several sequential images of the preparation while keeping the temperature, pH and/or ion concentration of the preparation and/or the intensity of illumination constant; (d) comparing the images to determine the maximum rate of change of the optical property in image regions representing selected tissue sections of the preparation; (e) using the maximum rate of change as a measure of the activity of the analyte in the selected image regions; and (f) determining the analyte concentration from the measured activity.