ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a number of immunocytochemical techniques that have been successfully applied to connective tissue research. It looks at connective tissue antigen localization at either the light or electron microscopic level, in whole tissue or in cell cultures. An underlying assumption of immunofluorescence and all immunocytochemical techniques is that the antigen of interest in the tissue or cell is accessible to antibody. Staining of tissues can be either specific, as when antibody reacts with the intended antigen in the tissue and the antibody is in turn recognized by a labeled secondary antibody. Immunoperoxidase labeling of cell cultures for light microscopy is basically the same as immunofluorescence labeling and gives the same information without added sensitivity. Methods of tissue preparation and fixation that suffice for light microscopic immunochemical work so dramatically alter the ultrastructural appearance of cells that specific organelles are hardly recognizable in the electron microscope.
