On Mon, 23 Nov 1998 NTT@shcc.org wrote:

> I'm posting this for a fellow researcher.  She would like to know if
>anyone has
> a protocol for demineralizing adult rat trachea sections.  She thinks
>that the
> Ca++ maybe blocking the antibody.

  You don't usually think of the trachea as a "mineralized"
  organ. The cartilage rings might be a bit calcified as a
  result of some sort of experimentation. In this case any
  routine decalcifying procedure would shift the calcium
  easily. The idea that calcium ions inhibit antigen-antibody
  combination seems novel. There are plenty of ordinary
  reasons for failure of an immunohistochemical method!
  The first thing to do is make sure you have a control
  tissue known to contain the antigen, and stain this
  alongside the unknowns. There are other controls too,
  especially to eliminate false positive results.

 John A. Kiernan,
 Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology,
 The University of Western Ontario,
 LONDON,  Canada  N6A 5C1