Instability of induction cooker (electromagnetic stove) antigen retrieval in immunohistochemistry.

: An induction cooker is a modern electric cooker that takes electromagnetic induction principle to heat. As it has high efficiency, no open flame, and is safe and convenient, more and more laboratories use it as an antigen retrieval heating tool in immunohistochemistry. We found that there was still some instability with the induction cooker, because with certain antigens the power change influenced the results of immunohistochemistry staining, showing weaker staining intensity or decreased number of positive cells, but which were not entirely negative. For some antigens, it had no influence on results. The instability of this heating tool for antigen retrieval was caused partly by negligent operators, and which may influence the experimental results and the pathologic diagnosis.