X-Message-Number: 10878
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 09:48:40 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: fixation of animal brains

Authors
  Urban K.  Hewicker-Trautwein M.
Institution
  Institut fur Pathologie, Tierarztlichen Hochschule Hannover, Germany.
Title
  Fixation-dependent vimentin immunoreactivity of mono- and
  polyclonal antibodies in brain tissue of
  cattle, rabbits, rats and mice.
Source
  Acta Histochemica.  96(4):365-77, 1994 Dec.
Abstract
  The immunohistochemical staining of vimentin in paraffin-embedded sections
  from adult cattle, rabbit, rat and mouse brain fixed in
  different fixatives (formaldehyde, methacarn, ethanol) was examined using two
  monoclonal antibodies and a polyclonal antiserum. In non-trypsinized
  formaldehyde-fixed tissue sections both monoclonal
  antibodies and the polyclonal antibodies failed to stain vimentin. Following
  trypsinization of formaldehyde-fixed sections of the four species the
  meninges, endothelial cells of blood vessels, ependymal cells and the stroma
  of the choroid plexus were labelled by the monoclonal and polyclonal
  antibodies used. Astrocytes and Bergmann glial fibers in pretrypsinized
  formaldehyde-fixed sections from cattle, rabbit and rat
  brain, however, showed only weak staining.
  Fixation of cattle and rat brain in
  methacarn markedly improved the vimentin immunoreactivity of astrocytes and
  Bergmann glial fibers. The best fixative for the preservation of
  immunoreactive determinants of vimentin in astrocytes and Bergmann glial
  fibers in cattle, rabbit and rat brain was ethanol. In
  brain tissue from mice both monoclonal
  antibodies labelled only mesoderm-derived tissue components,
  but did not recognize vimentin in astrocytes and Bergmann glial fibers.
  Pre-heating formaldehyde-fixed sections from cattle, rabbit and rat
  brain in a microwave oven prior to the immunohistochemical
  reaction resulted in an enormous enhancement of vimentin staining of
  mesoderm-derived tissues, of astrocytes and bergmann cell
  fibers.

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