Dear Histonetters

Thanks for the many responses to my query on dealing with background in 
mouse-on-mouse IHC for alpha smooth muscle actin.  The opportunity to 
'talk' to so many other histonetters is fantastic, I got several ideas on 
how to deal with the problem from different angles.  We will probably buy 
in one of the commercially available kits which involves creating a 
pre-labelled primary antibody and will also try to modify our present 
protocol with some high stringency washes.

In addition, I have recently done some immunohistochemistry for 
Transforming Growth Factor beta (TGF-b) in human liver biopsy tissue from 
patients with varying degrees of  fibrotic liver disease.  In some of my 
samples I see a 'spotty' staining in hepatocytes. This staining is not 
present in the negative controls, neither is it seen in all the samples 
(although this could be due to variations in processing and fixing).   I am 
not sure if this is real and was wondering if there are other histonetters 
out there who are doing TGF-b IHC staining in liver.  Would be great to 
know of other peoples experiences of the general pattern of TGF-b IHC 
staining in the liver.

Thanks

Tamara


Tamara Pereira
Clinical Sciences Unit
Queensland Institute of Medical Research
300 Herston Rd, Herston QLD 4029.
Phone: 33620174
Fax: 33620191
Email: tamaraP @qimr.edu.au