Skip to main content
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1970 Jan;65(1):122–128. doi: 10.1073/pnas.65.1.122

A General Method for the Specific Staining of Intracellular Antigens with Ferritin-Antibody Conjugates

J D McLean 1,*, S J Singer 1,
PMCID: PMC286200  PMID: 4189988

Abstract

A general method is described whereby an intracellular macromolecule can be specifically stained with its antibody conjugated to ferritin. In this method cells or cell organelles are fixed, embedded in bovine serum albumin cross-linked with glutaraldehyde or formaldehyde, and then sectioned. This procedure preserves antigenic determinants as well as the cellular ultrastructure. The application of the ferritin-antibody conjugate to the section produces specific staining of the exposed antigen.

Full text

PDF
127

Images in this article

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. ALLFREY V. G., MIRSKY A. E., STERN H. The chemistry of the cell nucleus. Adv Enzymol Relat Subj Biochem. 1955;16:411–500. doi: 10.1002/9780470122617.ch8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bernhard W., Leduc E. H. Ultrathin frozen sections. I. Methods and ultrastructural preservation. J Cell Biol. 1967 Sep;34(3):757–771. doi: 10.1083/jcb.34.3.757. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. DAVIES H. G. Structure in nucleated erythrocytes. J Biophys Biochem Cytol. 1961 Mar;9:671–687. doi: 10.1083/jcb.9.3.671. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Dutton A., Adams M., Singer S. J. Bifunctional imidoesters as cross-linking reagents. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1966 Jun 13;23(5):730–739. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(66)90462-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Lenard J., Singer S. J. Alteration of the conformation of proteins in red blood cell membranes and in solution by fixatives used in electron microscopy. J Cell Biol. 1968 Apr;37(1):117–121. doi: 10.1083/jcb.37.1.117. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. MCLEAN J. D., SINGER S. J. CROSS-LINKED POLYAMPHOLYTES. NEW WATER-SOLUBLE EMBEDDING MEDIA FOR ELECTRON MICROSCOPY. J Cell Biol. 1964 Mar;20:518–521. doi: 10.1083/jcb.20.3.518. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. MORGAN C., RIFKIND R. A., HSU K. C., HOLDEN M., SEEGAL B. C., ROSE H. M. Electron microscopic localization of intracellular viral antigen by the use of ferritin-conjugated antibody. Virology. 1961 Jun;14:292–296. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(61)90208-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. SCHICK A. F., SINGER S. J. On the formation of covalent linkages between two protein molecules. J Biol Chem. 1961 Sep;236:2477–2485. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. SINGER S. J., MCLEAN J. D. FERRITIN-ANTIBODY CONJUGATES AS STAINS FOR ELECTRON MICROSCOPY. Lab Invest. 1963 Oct;12:1002–1008. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. SINGER S. J. Preparation of an electron-dense antibody conjugate. Nature. 1959 May 30;183(4674):1523–1524. doi: 10.1038/1831523a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. STERN H., ALLFREY V., MIRSKY A. E., SAETREN H. Some enzymes of isolated nuclei. J Gen Physiol. 1952 Jan;35(3):559–578. doi: 10.1085/jgp.35.3.559. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Spendlove R. S., Singer S. J. ON THE PRESERVATION OF ANTIGENIC DETERMINANTS DURING FIXATION AND EMBEDDING FOR ELECTRON MICROSCOPY. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1961 Jan;47(1):14–18. doi: 10.1073/pnas.47.1.14. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Thomson R. O., Walker P. D., Batty I., Baillie A. Post-embedding staining with ferritin labelled antibodies. Nature. 1967 Jul 22;215(5099):393–394. doi: 10.1038/215393b0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES