Statistical Analysis for Receptor Autoradiography

In receptor autoradiography, the tissue distribution of receptors is visualized in the form of ligand bindings. However, this visualization is indirect because we can only observe and measure nonspecific bindings and total bindings. The distribution of receptors is obtained by subtracting the nonspecific bindings from the total bindings. In receptor autoradiography, it is important to compare the distribution of receptors between two groups of samples obtained from two different regions of tissues and/or organs. However, no appropriate method of statistical analysis has yet been used to compare the distribution of receptors of two different groups. In this paper, we present a statistical method for this purpose and apply this method to an example.