Sample Preparation for Peptide Immunocytochemistry

Immunocytochemistry is the localization of a tissue constituent in situ by means of a specific antigen-antibody reaction tagged by a visible label (1 ). For many years, the technique was not considered sufficiently reliable for the de nova identification of substances, but was used to assess histopathological alterations in substances previously identified and characterized by other means. Recent improvements in technique, particularly of specificity control and of sample preparation, have allowed immunocytochemistry to be used for the identification of substances before their biochemical identification. Immunocytochemistry is now used in almost all areas of biomedical research. Whereas subsequent chapters deal with specific immunocytochemical techniques, this chapter describes the methods of sample preparation that facilitate the immunocytochemistry of peptides at the light microscopical level.