Immunocytochemistry
Immunofluorescence labelling is an important component of many projects and essential for confocal imaging. (Regad et al 2009)
The brown reaction product produced by immunohistochemistry enables the localisation of epitopes without recourse to fluorescence microscopy.
| Figure 1 The brown dots evident within these nuclei, in the dentate gyrus region of brain section from a mouse aged 29 days, demonstrate the presence of MeCP2, which is co-localised with the heterochromatin. |
Particles of colloidal gold, 2-40nm in diameter, are used to label epitopes for electron microscopy.
| Figure 2 Pre-embedding immunogold cytochemistry, demonstrates the subcellular distribution of Neuropathy target esterase (NTE), which is exposed on the cytoplasmic face of the endoplasmic reticulum. |
| Figure 3 Post-embedding immunogold labelling of resin sections demonstrates the formation of cytoplasmic bodies, by a mutant form of PML, which have been labelled with immunogold (5 nm). Bellodi et al. J.Biol Chem. 281 14465-14473, 2006. |
The use of different sizes of gold particles enables the simultaneous demonstration of different epitopes.
| Figure 4 Filaggrin (20nm golds) and loricrin (10nm golds) are clearly present in different sub-cellular compartments in a section through the epidermis of a mouse. |
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