Dear All,

I have a large number of brain samples to process for immunocytochemistry 
with a primary and then a fluorescent secondary antibody. I was wondering if 
it would be possible to save steps by premixing the primary and fluorescent 
secondary together, then staining with the mix and doing washes like normal.

Blocking with serum would preceded the staining, and thus should prevent any 
nonspecific background. Also, since only the primary and secondary are 
present when they are binding to each other, this might actually reduce 
nonspecific binding to parts of the tissue.

Any ideas? I have not heard of anyone doing this before, but there were no 
contraindications either listed in the histonet archives.

Best,
Ed

ed_boyden@hotmail.com
Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Stanford Neuroscience Program
Stanford, CA 94305-5345
phone (650) 725-7564
fax (650) 725-8021

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