To assess recent improvements in quantitative whole-body autoradioluminography (QWBA), the entire QWBA procedure was divided into five processes. Each process was then investigated carefully to determine whether there were any problems in defining a clear standard operating procedure. Results show that use of two instruments, Macro-Cut, Leica, Germany, and the Bioimaging Analyzer with IP, Fuji Photo Film, was essential to produce macroautoradiographs for QWBA data. The remaining problems include the process for freezing the animal carcass and the process for freeze-drying or lyophilizing the frozen sections of the biomaterials. In addition, a desirable standard operating procedure (SOP) must be developed for assessing QWBA. This article proposes satisfactory SOPs with sufficient clarification and experimental proofs to ensure regulatory compliance for the QWBA technique.
Copyright 1999 Academic Press.