Rising Adoption of Automated Slide Stainer

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies mostly use slide stainers for the preparation of quality control slides. These companies biotechnology operate in a highly regulated market. Hence, the demand for standardized and rapid workflows has increased among these companies to meet the regulatory and quality standards. This has led to an increasing adoption rate of automated slide stainers among pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, which reduces the manual interactions and errors and reduces standardization and validation pressure on in-house laboratories. 

The manufacturers are developing automated slide stainers to meet specific requirements in various laboratory applications. Slide strainers with automated cleaning cycles and high-throughput capabilities can be processed in about 4-5 minutes. Both batch type staining and stain spraying can be performed in automated slide strainers. Slide stainers automatically apply specific labeled antibodies, conjugated enzymes, and peroxidase to individual slides in a specific predetermined order. Improve throughput for staining protocols frequently needed in histology and cytology applications and considerably decrease the time required for routine work in the laboratory. Vendors are manufacturing compact slide strainers with built-in design features. For instance, the Histo-Tek® SL Slide Stainer introduced an automated slide stainer offering a new level of convenience and standardization for your low-volume laboratory needs, all at a low total cost of ownership.

With increasing technological advancements in the slide stainer, the growth of the market is booming globally.

For instance,

In March 2020, ELITechGroup Inc., recognized worldwide as slide staining and cytocentrifuge technologic pioneers and innovators, launched the Aerospray Cytology Slide Stainer Cytocentrifuge.

The ELITechGroup’s Aerospray Cytology Slide Stainer/Cytocentrifuge automates the preparation and staining of liquid-based cytology specimens to facilitate examining an array of cell differentiations utilizing Papanicolaou staining techniques.

The advantage of the Aerospray Cytology Slide Stainer/Cytocentrifuge is that it performs two functions of sample preparation through cytocentrifugation and sample staining. The system maximizes cell recovery to the slide through the use of its Cytopro® Rotor, eliminates cross-contamination with an application of fresh stain for each slide, and provides programmable regressive and progressive staining capabilities that can be stored in memory to meet the needs and preferences of any end-user. The instrument standardizes staining across multiple labs, provides consistently high-quality control, is low maintenance, reduces the labor/cost per slide, enables laboratory compliance, and is the perfect back-up for high automation laboratories for specialty staining and during maintenance.

In February 2018, Sakura Finetek USA launched the Tissue-Tek Prisma Plus Automated Slide Stainer, making the already fastest histology slide stainer in the industry faster to 530 slides per hour. In addition to increasing the speed to 530 slides per hour to better address peak slide throughput demand, new key software features have been added to gain flexibility, versatility, and maximize uptime.  New software enhancements include the user's ability to choose between 50 stain reagent colors to identify better and differentiate them when displayed on the user interface.  This is especially useful when running multiple protocols at the same time. 

By connecting the Prisma Plus with either the Tissue-Tek Film® Coverslipper or the Tissue-Tek® Glas™ g2 Coverslipper, laboratories can today create an integrated, fully automated walkaway staining process from slide baking to slide drying. 

Concerns Associated with Automated Slide Stainers

There are some concerns associated with using autostainers, such as the initial expense, space availability, and repair issues, which are slow the adoption of slide stainers.

A routine stainer may have only a manual method as a backup, but the stainer may be occupying the only space in the laboratory where a manual stain system can fit.

The downtime for repairs is lengthy if service technicians lack professional technicians in developing countries.

Some technologists object to being limited to the dedicated reagents required by some systems.

Another concern is that the technologist is now removed from the staining process. When doing a manual stain, the technologist can observe each step; if they see that something is wrong, the procedure can often be stopped to correct the problem. 

A staining problem on an automated system may not be noticed until the finished product is reviewed, and sometimes troubleshooting at this stage is difficult. 

In training situations, learning the principles of staining is important. Using a machine instead of human eyes and hands may impair the trainee’s ability to understand the actual staining process.

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