On Wed, 18 Nov 1998 Cindipqr@aol.com wrote:

> Would someone please recommend some good IHC books for me?  Thanks

   Polak, Julia M. & Van Noorden, Susan "Immunohistochemistry"
     2nd ed. 1997. Bios Scientific Publishers, Oxford. 160 pages.

   This excellent little book explains the mechanisms and tells you
   what to do. Very clearly written, and better than some bigger
   books on the subject. It's one of the Royal Microscopical
   Society's series of monographs: a paperback that's cheap only
   in its price.

   The DAKO company has a free booklet that's very good for practical
   instructions, but it's a bit thin on the "theory." When you do
   an immuno stain it's very important to _understand_ the reason
   for every step. If you follow instructions without thinking and
   reasoning it won't be long before you get a failure (false positive
   or false negative), and you will not know how to find out what's
   wrong. (Looking back over this paragraph it looks like a criticism
   of the DAKO booklet. It isn't; the booklet is very good, but it
   assumes some knowledge of the principles of immunohistochemistry.)

   The enquirer gives the impression that she must learn about it from
   scratch. That's why I recommend a small book that explains the whys
   as well as the howtos. There are plenty of big book that cover this
   field, and you will probably get many replies!

 John A. Kiernan,
 Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology,
 The University of Western Ontario,
 LONDON,  Canada  N6A 5C1
   E-mail: kiernan@uwo.ca