LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Autoradiography vs Radioautography

Recent advocacy of the term "radioautography" (Nagata 1996 ) is a rerun of earlier discussions about terminology (Preuss 1957 ; Joftes and Warren 1956 ; Boyd 1955 ; Tauxe et al. 1954 ). The vast majority of authors of books and research papers, past and present, have applied the term "autoradiography" (see also Stumpf and Solomon 1995). A preference for "autoradiography" has persisted, despite policies of certain institutions and journals requiring textual changes from "autoradiography" to "radioautography" in submissions. The Index Medicus of the US National Library of Medicine advocated "radioautography" as the official term between 1963 and 1972, but this was changed to "autoradiography" (Medical Subject Heading) in 1973. Since 1973, "autoradiography" has been the official term in MEDLINE searches.

Etymological arguments have been made for "autoradiography" to designate the methodology and "autoradiogram" to designate the pictorial record. Since the Greek word "auto" acts as a prefix, it is usually not found in the middle of a word. In addition, the process does not produce an "autograph" but rather a "radiograph," as a form of "self-ray writing." An additional argument against "radioautography" is constituted by the four vowelsi,o,a,u,occurring together; because of possible enunciation and phonetic difficulties this should be avoided (Boyd 1955 ; Tauxe et al. 1954 ).

Discussions in the literature give the impression that neither of the two Latin-Greek or Greek-Latin-Greek hybrids, "radioautography" and "autoradiography," satisfies all aspects of terminology regarding purist linguistic demands and concise designation of the various applications. Continued disputes about semantics, therefore, are likely to remain unproductive. To avoid confusion, however, it would be prudent to settle for one term. The points made above support the recent decision by the editor of the Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry to favor the term "autoradiography" for techniques that utilize radioactive label in conjunction with sensitive detection media to obtain function- and time-related topographical information. "Autoradiography" designates a variety of histochemical techniques that are well-suited for the localization, characterization, and quantification of bioactive substances in specific tissues and cells (e.g., Stumpf 1995 ; Stumpf and Solomon 1995).

Literature Cited

Boyd GA (1955) Autoradiography in Biology and Medicine. New York, Academic Press

Joftes DL, Warren S (1956) Terminology. Science 124:1155-1156

Nagata T (1996) On the terminology of radioautography vs autoradiography. J Histochem Cytochem 44:1209[Medline]

Preuss LE (1957) Autoradiography: terminology and definition. Science 126:369-370

Stumpf WE (1995) Vitamin D sites and mechanisms of action: a histochemical perspective. Reflections on the utility of autoradiography and cytopharmacology for drug targeting. Histochem Cell Biol 104:417-427[Medline]

Stumpf WE, Solomon HF, eds (1995) Autoradiography and Correlative Imaging. San Diego, Academic Press

Tauxe WN, Moser AH, Boyd GA (1954) Etymology of autoradiography. Science 120:149-150

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Stumpf, W. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Stumpf, W. E. Social Bookmarking                      What's this?

Guidelines | Subscriptions | About | exPRESS - Current - Archive | Business Information | Contact