Immunohistochemistry of Resinated Tissues for Light and Electron Microscopy

In spite of the widespread use of immunocytochemical methods and the commensurate increase in the range of available techniques, a consistent means of electron miroscopical antigen localization in the lipid-rich central nervous system (CNS) has yet to be established. However, some successes have been achieved, most notably in neuroanatomy studies Combined morphological and histochemical techniques for the study of neuronal microcircuits have been described (1 ). Many of the antigens investigated in the CNS, such as neurotransmitters, appear not to withstand conventional electron microscopical fixation and embedding methods and consequently pre-embedding methods are employed (2 ). Pre-embedding immunocytochemistry unfortunately suffers from the disadvantages of unpredictable antibody penetration and suboptimal morphological structure.