Protein A-gold immunocytochemistry is a two-step, post-embedding labeling procedure which may be applied to tissue sections to localize intra- and extracellular proteins. The key requisite for immunocytochemistry is the availability of the appropriate antibody to react in an immune response with the antigenic sites on the protein of interest. During the second step, protein A-gold complex is reacted with the antibody. This is a non- specific reaction in that protein A will combine with most IgG antibodies. The ‘label’ visualized in the electron microscope is colloidal gold. Since labeling is restricted to the surface of the tissue section and since colloidal gold is particulate, labeling density, i.e., the number of gold particles per unit area of tissue section, may be quantitated with ease and accuracy.
