Abstract Immunocytochemistry (ICC) is a very important tool in a diverse range of biomedical research as well as in diagnostic cytopathology. Smears prepared from cervical scrapes contain a large amount of overlying mucus that interferes with the standard immunocytochemical staining protocol. A modified ICC protocol is described, which involves pretreatment of these smears with 1 mg/ml solution of Ambroxol hydrochloride in methanol for 1 hour. Source of Ambroxol hydrochloride was a 30 mg Mucolite™ tablet, at a cost of 1.70 rupees (∼3·5 US cents) per tablet. This mucolytic solution effectively clears the mucus, facilitating the accessibility of the antibody to the antigenic determinants. This pretreatment resulted in the increased percentage of positively stained cells as well as staining intensity, leading to improved overall ICC staining and score. This is a novel modification that can be cost-effectively applied in ICC staining protocols for cytology samples characterized by the presence of excess mucus.

中文翻译：

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一种简单的经济有效的修改提高了以存在过量粘液为特征的宫颈刮片样本中免疫细胞化学染色的质量

摘要 免疫细胞化学 (ICC) 是各种生物医学研究以及诊断细胞病理学中非常重要的工具。从宫颈刮片制备的涂片含有大量覆盖的粘液，会干扰标准免疫细胞化学染色方案。描述了修改后的 ICC 协议，其中包括使用 1 毫克/毫升盐酸氨溴索甲醇溶液对这些涂片进行预处理 1 小时。盐酸氨溴索的来源是 30 毫克的 Mucolite™ 片剂，每片成本为 1.70 卢比（~3·5 美分）。这种粘液溶解溶液有效地清除粘液，促进抗体对抗原决定簇的可及性。这种预处理导致阳性染色细胞的百分比和染色强度增加，导致整体 ICC 染色和评分的改善。这是一种新颖的修改，可以经济有效地应用于 ICC 染色协议，用于以存在过量粘液为特征的细胞学样本。