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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Nov 3.
Published in final edited form as: Bio Protoc. 2014 May 5;4(9):e1120. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.1120

Immunostaining Protocol: P-Stat3 (Xenograft and Mice)

Alexandre Calon 1, Elisa Espinet 1, Sergio Palomo-Ponce 1, Daniele V F Tauriello 1, Mar Iglesias 2, María Virtudes Céspedes 3, Marta Sevillano 3, Cristina Nadal 4, Peter Jung 4, Xiang H-F Zhang 5, Daniel Byrom 6, Antoni Riera 6, David Rossell 7, Ramón Mangues 7, Joan Massague 7, Elena Sancho 7,*, Eduard Batlle 7,*
PMCID: PMC5669275  NIHMSID: NIHMS913681  PMID: 29104885

Abstract

We sought to understand the mechanisms behind the potent effect of stromal TGF-beta program on the capacity of colorectal cancer (CRC) cells to initiate metastasis. We discovered that mice subcutaneous tumors and metastases generated in the context of a TGF-beta activated microenvironment displayed prominent accumulation of p-STAT3 in CRC cells compared with those derived from control cells. STAT3 signaling depended on GP130 as shown by strong reduction of epithelial p STAT3 levels upon GP130 shRNA-mediated knockdown in CRC cells.

Materials and Reagents

  1. Paraffin sections (subcutaneous tumors samples or liver metastasis from nude mice respectively injected subcutaneously or intrasplenic with CRC cells)

  2. XILOL

    Note: Xylol also referred to as xylene or dimethylbenzene is a solvent used in histology as a clearing agent to remove paraffin from dried microscope slides prior to staining.

  3. MilliQ H2O

  4. Wash buffer (Dako, catalog number: K800721)

  5. Rabbit anti-P-Stat3 (Cell Signaling Technology, catalog number: 9145S)

  6. BrightVision poly-HRP anti- Rabbit (Immunologic, catalog number: DPVR110HRP)

  7. Envision FLEX antibody diluent (Dako, catalog number: K8006)

  8. Peroxidase Blocking Solution (Dako, catalog number: S202386)

  9. ImmPACT DAB (Vector Laboratories, catalog number: SK-4105)

  10. DPX mounting media (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: 06522)

  11. Hematoxylin

  12. Tris/EDTA (pH 9.0) (see Recipes)

Equipment

  1. Oven

  2. Immunostaining apparatus

Procedure

  1. Stove samples at 65 °C just before starting the immunostaining technique. Remove the samples from the oven when the wax present in sections is completely undone.

  2. De-waxing and rehydration: Place slides in a rack to perform following washes (bath).

    1. XILOL: 10 min

    2. XILOL: 10 min

    3. XILOL: 5 min

    4. 100% EtOH: 10 min

    5. 100% EtOH: 5 min

    6. 96% EtOH: 5 min

    7. 90% EtOH: 10–15 times

    8. 80% EtOH: 10–15 times

    9. 70% EtOH: 10–15 times

    10. 50% EtOH: 10–15 times

    11. 25% EtOH: 10–15 times

    12. H2O MilliQ: 10–15 times

  3. Antigen retrieval.

    1. Tris-EDTA Buffer (pH 9.0)

    2. Time: 20 min in boiling water

  4. 3 washes 5 min with 1 ml 1x wash buffer.

  5. Blocking endogenous peroxidase.

    1. 200 ml Peroxidase Blocking Solution

    2. Time: 10 min

  6. 3 washes 5 min with 1 ml 1x wash buffer.

  7. Incubation with primary antibody.

    1. Antibody: Rabbit anti-P-Stat3

    2. Dilution 1/200 in Envision FLEX antibody diluent

    3. 200 μl/sample

    4. O/N 4 °C

  8. 3 washes 5 min with 1 ml 1x wash buffer

  9. Incubation with antibody BrightVision

    1. Antiboby: BrightVision anti-Rabbit

    2. 150 μl/sample

    3. Time: 45 min at room temperature

  10. 3 washes 5 min with 1 ml 1x wash buffer

  11. Revealed with ImmPACT DAB.

    1. 200 μl/sample

    2. Time: 10 min

  12. 3 washes 5 min with 1 ml distilled water.

  13. Hematoxylin (1 ml) counterstaining, time: 2 min.

  14. Rinse in distilled water bath.

  15. Rinse in TAP water bath.

  16. Dehydration and mounting with DPX.

Representative data

Figure 1. p-STAT3 staining of liver metastases generated after intrasplenic injection of CRC cells.

Figure 1

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Note strong staining in epithelial cells (arrows). E: epithelial cells, Str: stromal cells. Scale bar = 50 μm

Recipes

  1. Tris/EDTA (pH 9.0)

    12 g Tris

    3.7 g EDTA in 10 L MilliQ

Acknowledgments

A.C. and D.V.F.T hold a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral fellowship, E.E. an FPI PhD fellowship (both from Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation). This work has been supported by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III FEDER (RD09/0076/00036) and the “Xarxa de Bancs de tumors sponsored by Pla Director d’Oncologia de Catalunya (XBTC), to E.B. from the European Research Council (Starting grant - 208488) and Consolider programmes (MICINN), to E.S. and A.C. by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, to JM by NIH grant CA34610 and to RM by grants PS09/00965 (MICINN) and NanoCoMets (CIBERBBN).

References

  • 1.Calon A, Espinet E, Palomo-Ponce S, Tauriello DV, Iglesias M, Cespedes MV, Sevillano M, Nadal C, Jung P, Zhang XH, Byrom D, Riera A, Rossell D, Mangues R, Massague J, Sancho E, Batlle E. Dependency of colorectal cancer on a TGF-beta-driven program in stromal cells for metastasis initiation. Cancer Cell. 2012;22(5):571–584. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2012.08.013. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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