Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1
Occludins tightly at aching adjacent cells. Occludins are special adhesion molecules in
tight junctions between cells. Reprinted from Kaneda
et al.
(2006), with permission.
Color image of this i gure appears in the color plate section at the end of the topic.
(Trache and Meininger 2008). h ere has also been much research on the
involvement of integrins as a sampler of the environment for mechanotransduction
of endothelial cells.
OVERVIEW OF METHODS
Immunohistochemistry consists of attaching a visible or l uorescent dye to an
antibody against a particular target antigen that one wants to identify within a
cell or tissue. To conduct immunohistochemistry, the tissue must be prepared for
histology, with the preparation of thin parai n-embedded sections. Parai n must
be removed from the sections, usually by being placed in an oven overnight or a
series of xylenes. h ey must then be rehydrated by being passed through a graded
series of alcohols from absolute to 50%, followed by tap water. h e availability of
the antigen for interaction with a specii c antibody can be maximized by enzymatic
digestion, microwave irradiation or pressure cooking. Heat-induced epitope
retrieval is the most commonly used method today. Following epitope retrieval
in the appropriate pH solution, the slides are rinsed and ready for staining. Before
a staining reaction is created, background proteins that might interfere with the
