Originally published as JHC exPRESS on July 21, 2008. doi:10.1369/jhc.2008.950105
Volume 56 (11): 969-975, 2008 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Reduction of High Background Staining by Heating Unfixed Mouse Skeletal Muscle Tissue Sections Allows for Detection of Thermostable Antigens With Murine Monoclonal Antibodies
Department of Physiology II, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany (RRM,RS,MZ,AW), and TaconicArtemis GmbH, Köln, Germany (EF) Correspondence to: Rustam R. Mundegar, Department of Physiology II, University of Bonn, Wilhelmstrasse 31, D-53111 Bonn, Germany. E-mail: mundegar{at}yahoo.de
Antigen detection with indirect immunohistochemical methods is hampered by high background staining if the primary antibody is from the same species as the examined tissue. This high background can be eliminated in unfixed cryostat sections of mouse skeletal muscle by boiling sections in PBS, and several proteins including even the low abundant dystrophin protein can then be easily detected with murine monoclonal antibodies. However, not all antigens withstand the boiling procedure. Immunoreactivity of some of these antigens can be restored by subsequent washing in Triton X-100, whereas immunoreactivity of other proteins is not restored by this detergent treatment. When such thermolabile proteins are labeled with polyclonal primary antibodies followed by dichlorotriazinylaminofluorescein–conjugated secondary antibodies and boiled, the fluorescence signal persists, and sections can then be processed with a monoclonal antibody for double immunostaining of a protein unaffected by boiling. This stability of certain fluorochromes on heating can also be exploited for double immunofluorescence labeling of two different thermostable proteins with murine monoclonal antibodies as well as for combination with Y-chromosome fluorescence in situ hybridization. Our method should extend the range of monoclonal antibodies applicable to tissues derived from the same species as the monoclonal antibodies. (J Histochem Cytochem 56:969–975, 2008)
Key Words: background reduction boiling double immunofluorescence dystrophin homologous tissue immunohistochemistry monoclonal mouse antibodies
ANTIGEN LOCALIZATION in tissue sections with antibodies (Abs) is hampered by high background staining if Abs and tissue sections are of the same species, probably because of detection of endogenous immunoglobulins (Igs) in tissue samples by secondary Abs (Hierck et al. 1994
Strategies for circumvention of background staining, such as direct labeling of primary Abs (Brown et al. 2004
Tissue Samples Tibialis anterior muscle from mdx mice between 10 and 18 months of age (n 100) and soleus muscle from C57BL/10 mice between 8 and 10 months of age (n=10) were removed and snap-frozen in isopentane cooled in liquid nitrogen. Biopsies from human vastus lateralis muscle (n=4) was obtained according to the protocol of the Ethics Commission of the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn. Six-µm cryostat sections were collected on SuperFrostPlus slides (Menzel-Gläser; Braunschweig, Germany). Sections were stored at –80C.
Background Reduction
Antibodies
IHC All sera and Abs were diluted in PBS, and all incubations were carried out at 37C unless otherwise stated. After background reduction for application of murine MAbs as described above, sections were blocked with normal goat serum (NGS, 1:20; Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, West Grove, PA) for 15 min and additionally with 1% H2O2. (30 min at room temperature) for application of tyramide signal amplification (TSA). Mouse skeletal muscle sections were incubated with primary Abs for 30 min. Primary mouse MAbs were detected by rhodamine-conjugated goat anti-mouse Abs (GAMA, 1:200; Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories) and rabbit polyclonal Abs with dichlorotriazinylaminofluorescein (DTAF)-conjugated goat anti-rabbit Abs (1:200; Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories) after incubation for 20 min. The human specific MAbs (Table1) were applied to sections of human vastus lateralis muscle.
Protocols for double immunofluorescence with MAbs from the same species on sections fixed with paraformaldehyde (Suzuki et al. 2005 Double immunofluorescence staining of laminin and dystrophin was performed by incubation of sections with polyclonal anti-laminin Abs followed by DTAF-conjugated anti-rabbit Abs (1:200; Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories) for 20 min. Sections were dried thoroughly, at least for 30 min at room temperature before boiling in PBS for background reduction, and dystrophin was detected with anti-dystrophin MAb as described above. Negative controls consisted of IHC without primary Abs. MAbs without positive immunostaining (Table 1) after boiling of sections served as isotype controls, and non-immune rabbit serum served as controls for polyclonal Abs.
IHC Combined With FISH Sections were embedded in Fluoromount G (Southern Biotech; Birmingham, AL) and viewed under a Zeiss Axioskop 2 epifluorescence microscope equipped with a digital Zeiss AxioCam HRc camera (Carl Zeiss; Jena, Germany). Images were processed with Adobe photoshop 5.0 (Adobe Systems; Tucson, AZ).
Dystrophin IHC was carried out on unfixed cryostat serial sections of skeletal muscle from an mdx mouse with MAb before background reduction. The high background on incubation with secondary Ab, in this case rhodamine-conjugated GAMA, precludes identification of dystrophin positive revertant fibers with the MAb (Figure 1A ). This background staining was absent if sections were boiled in PBS for 5 min before application of MAb, allowing for clear identification of dystrophin at the sarcolemma of revertant fibers (Figure 1B). Gross morphology did not seem to be altered by boiling. Dry sections heated up to 110C in an oven retained background staining (data not shown). To test whether the epitope recognized by the anti-dystrophin MAb is thermostable when present in the full-length wild-type dystrophin molecule, dystrophin detection was performed with the MAb on an unfixed cryostat section of the soleus muscle from a C57BL/10 mouse after boiling in PBS for 5 min (Figure 1C). Sarcolemmal dystrophin immunoreactivity was detected in all muscle fibers (Figure 1C). Dystrophin can be also be readily detected in human skeletal muscle sections after boiling in PBS with the MAb specific for human dystrophin (Table 1).
Boiling of sections could interfere with dystrophin detection through extraction of dystrophin or through limited accessibility of the antigen in an environment denatured by boiling. We therefore detected dystrophin with a polyclonal Ab on a section before boiling (Figure 1D) and on a serial section after boiling in PBS for 1 min by simultaneous incubation with the monoclonal (Figure 1E) and polyclonal Abs (Figure 1F). The patterns of dystrophin expression detected by the polyclonal Ab before (Figure 1D) and on the serial section by the MAb after boiling (Figure 1E) were identical; however, dystrophin staining with the polyclonal Ab is barely discernible after boiling (Figure 1F). Dystrophin immunostaining with the polyclonal Ab on a further serial section was restored by washing the section in 1% Triton X-100 for 15 min after boiling in PBS for 1 min (Figure 1G), whereas dystrophin staining with the MAb on the same section (Figure 1H) was unaffected by washing in Triton X-100. Boiling periods as low as 15 sec also effectively reduced background levels; however, background levels vary between individual animals and between muscle groups in an animal, and we therefore routinely boiled sections of 6 µm thickness for 5 min. Sections were washed in Triton X-100 for 15 min after background reduction for Abs showing no or equivocal immunostaining after boiling in PBS. These conditions yielded consistent abolition of background staining even in denervated mdx muscles with intrinsically high background levels (data not shown). Secondary Ab dilutions as low as 1:40 could be used without detectable background staining. Immunostaining results for several antigens after boiling of unfixed skeletal muscle sections followed by washing in Triton X-100 are shown in Table 1. For detection of dystrophin and the Y-chromosome by FISH on the same section, an unfixed cryostat section of a tibial muscle from a male mdx mouse was boiled, and dystrophin was detected with MAb followed by peroxidase-catalyzed precipitation of Cy3-conjugated tyramide. The section was fixed, and FISH carried out as described above. Fluorescent conjugates of tyramide are resistant to boiling, and the sequence of staining allows for the demonstration of dystrophin together with the nuclear Y-chromosome FISH signal (Figure 1I) in a revertant fiber. The thermostability of certain fluorescent dyes can also be exploited for immunofluorescence double labeling with MAbs from the same species by multiple boiling steps. For double immunofluorescence labeling of neurofilaments and SMA, an unfixed frozen skeletal muscle section was first boiled for background reduction and sequentially incubated with mouse monoclonal anti-neurofilament Ab (subclass IgG1), peroxidase-conjugated GAMA (reacts with all mouse IgGs), and Cy3-conjugated tyramide in amplification solution. After precipitation of tyramide, sections were once again boiled for denaturation of primary and secondary Ab complexes. Sections were incubated with mouse monoclonal anti-SMA (subclass IgG2a), followed by DTAF-conjugated GAMA (reacts with all mouse IgGs). Staining patterns for neurofilaments and SMA (Figure 1J) are restricted to peripheral nerves and blood vessels walls, respectively. Repeated cycles of boiling did not alter SMA or neurofilament immunoreactivity (data not shown). M-cadherin, a marker for satellite cells and regenerating muscle fibers, is thermostable (Table 1) and can be conveniently codetected with dystrophin after just one boiling step for background reduction (data not shown). Certain antigens, however, do not withstand boiling in PBS. Human lamin A/C, useful for tracing implanted human cells in mouse skeletal muscle, or laminin, useful for the spatial localization of antigens such as dystrophin or satellite cells in skeletal muscle fibers, showed no immunostaining after boiling. Immunoreactivity of such proteins was not restored if sections were washed in Triton X-100 after boiling in PBS (Table 1). Fixation of sections with acetone or methanol had no effect on background reduction by boiling of sections but did not result in preservation of the immunoreactivity of such thermolabile proteins. Laminin could not be detected by any of the monoclonal or polyclonal Abs listed in Table 1, even with amplification methods. Laminin immunostaining with polyclonal rabbit anti-laminin Ab and DTAF-conjugated tyramide on cryostat sections before boiling (Figure 1K) is not possible if IHC is carried out after boiling sections (Figure 1L). However, if laminin is first detected by rabbit polyclonal anti-laminin Abs followed by DTAF-conjugated anti-rabbit Abs and the sections are then boiled, the fluorescence DTAF signal of the denatured secondary Ab persists (Figure 1M), and the background reduction on boiling then allows for detection of dystrophin with anti-dystrophin MAb on the same section (Figure 1N).
The method described above for background reduction in mouse skeletal muscle tissue for application of murine MAbs is a simple alternative to other methods (Lu and Partridge 1998
Microwave treatment of formalin-fixed sections conveniently combines background reduction with antigen retrieval (Tornehave et al. 2000
Antigenicity of thermostable proteins is not affected by multiple short boiling periods, resulting in simple protocols for double indirect immunofluorescence with secondary antibodies, coupled with thermostable fluorochromes, from the same species. Various methods of heating fixed sections for inactivation of the first pair of primary–secondary antibody complexes have been previously described (Wang and Larsson 1985 In our experience, the thermolabile proteins are extremely sensitive to heating in PBS, because reduction of boiling times (down to 15–30 sec) or reduction in temperature (down to 90C) still abolishes their antigenicity. However, we have not been able to selectively preserve the antigenicity of a thermolabile protein with a concomitant reduction in background staining by manipulating boiling times or temperatures. Heat labile antigens can be "salvaged" if detected with polyclonal antibodies before boiling and can be combined with MAbs to heat-stable antigens for double immunofluorescence staining.
For combination of dystrophin IHC and FISH, IHC with TSA followed by fixation (Donadoni et al. 2004
In conclusion, we described a simple, rapid, inexpensive method for reduction of background staining in unfixed mouse tissue sections with preservation of antigenicity of several proteins. Our method should facilitate the application of murine MAbs to mouse tissue sections in a variety of experimental settings (Wernig et al. 2005
This study was supported by Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung Grant FKZ 01 GN 0122 (to AW). We thank Hans-Peter Bürkner, Dorit Glass, and Fabian Langenbach for skilled technical assistance.
Received for publication November 16, 2007; accepted July 7, 2008
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