Comparison of two different deposition methods of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane on glass slides and their application in the ThinPrep cytologic test.

In this work, two different deposition methods of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) on glass slides were compared in order to study the adhesion effect of cervical exfoliated cells on smear slides. Glass slides were modified by vapor-phase deposition (V-D) and liquid-phase deposition (L-D), respectively. The topographic images and amine density of the modified slides were investigated by using atomic force microscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The numbers of cells adhered on the slides functionalized by V-D and L-D were counted and compared under the microscope. The data showed significant differences between the two methods (t-test: P < 0.05). The results presented here have made it theoretically possible to produce amine slides by V-D method for the ThinPrep cytologic test.