Immunocytochemical techniques

Epidermal nerve fiber analysis by immunocytochemical techniques using the panaxonal marker protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5) allows the study of epidermal innervation by small fiber C and A5 nerve fibers (McCarthy et al. 1995 Holland et al. 1997). Studies of skin biopsies of HIV infected patients with DSP or ATN showed reduction in the number of epidermal fibers in distal areas of the lower extremities with an inverse correlation between neuropathic pain intensity and epidermal nerve fiber density (Polydefkis et al. 2002) (Fig. 4.3). There were also fewer epidermal fibers in HIV seropositive patients without clinical evidence of neuropathy, suggesting that HIV infection may be associated with the loss of cutaneous innervation even before the onset of sensory symptomatology (McCarthy et al. 1995). 

Weintraub J, Redard M, Wenger D, et al. The application of immunocytochemical techniques to routinely fixed and stained cytologic specimens. Pathol. Res. Pract. 1990 186 658-665. 

Beltz BS, Burd GD. Immunocytochemical Techniques, Blackwell Scientific Publishers, Inc, Malden, MA, 1989. 

This chapter describes the use of electron microscopy, coupled with immunocytochemical techniques, to investigate the ability of lignolytic enzymes from P. chrysosporium to diffuse inside the wood cell wall. 

Approaches that have been used to prove that a suspected transmitter resides in the presynaptic terminal of the pathway under study include biochemical analysis of regional concentrations of suspected transmitters and immunocytochemical techniques for enzymes and peptides. 

Beltz, B. S. and Burd, G D (1989) Immunocytochemical Techniques Principles and Practice. Blackwell, Oxford. 

All immunocytochemical techniques are based on a similar principle of incubating the target antigen with an appropriate antibody solution, but they may incorporate one or more from a range of dif-... 

Some 3500 dopaminergic neurons located in the zona compacta of the substantia nigra innervate the entire neostriatum 0>, 7). Within the neostriatum, the axons of these neurons form an extremely dense terminal arborization that can be visualized with fluorescence histochemistry and immunocytochemical techniques ( 8, 9). This terminal arborization contains approximately 1 billion dopaminergic varicosities and forms about 20% of all the varicosities (10) present in the neostriatum. 

Beaudet A, Doumaud P, Boudin H. Complementarity of radioautographic and immunocytochemical techniques for localizing neuroreceptors at the light and electron microscopic level. Braz J Med Biol Res 1998 31 215-223. 

The presence of neuropeptides at these and many other sites has been ascertained by use of immunocytochemical techniques, made possible by the increasing availability of appropriate peptide antibodies. This development took place in conjunction with rapid advances in the chemical identification of a growing number of bioactive peptides and the production of synthetic analogs. 

Ottersen OP, Storm-Mathisen J (1984b) Glutamate- and GABA-containing neurons in the mouse and rat brain, as demonstrated with a new immunocytochemical technique. J Comp Neurol 229 374-392. 

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