Dear Janet,

We sometimes use the Griffonia simplicifolia isolectin-B4 (Sigma) on rat 
and mouse tissues. On paraffin we used  1h steaming with citrate buffer pH 
6.0. The Isolectin-B4 staining in our hands always has been very irregular. 
Certainly the degree of fixation plays an important role in succeeding or 
not. Unfortunately there are little alternatives for staining all 
microglial cells. OX-42 does not work on paraffin and ED1 only stains the 
activated microglial cells (I come from the lab who created the ED 
monoclonals). OX-6 (MHC class II) works after HIER but again only stains 
the activated microglia. For cat tissues I cannot help.

Good luck
Jan

-----------------------------------------------------
Jan Bauer, Ph.D
Div. of Neuroimmunology
Brain Research Institute
Spitalgasse 4
A-1090 Vienna
Austria

tel:    +43-1-4277 62813
fax:    +43-1-4277 9628