scholarly journals Light and electron microscopic in situ hybridization: non-radioactive labeling and detection, double hybridization, and combined hybridization-immunocytochemistry.

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 815-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Egger ◽  
M Troxler ◽  
K Bienz

We performed light and electron microscopic in situ hybridization, according to the same protocol and without pretreatment of sections, on Lowicryl- and LR Gold-embedded cells. Digoxigenin (DIG)- or biotin-labeled riboprobes were visualized by direct or indirect immunodetection using commercially available gold-antibody conjugates with 0.8-10-nm gold grains. At the ultrastructural level, the main findings were that DIG-labeled probes gave a slightly higher labeling intensity (grains per signal) than biotin. The direct detection method produced a more compact signal, which led to better resolution at medium and high magnifications. Labeling intensities of all gold grain sizes were essentially equal. Grain sizes of 5 nm and larger were highly preferable because available enhancement methods are unsatisfactory for ultrasmall grains. The optimized immunodetection protocols are suitable for double hybridization with two different probes and for combined hybridization and immunocytochemistry.

Author(s):  
Joseph E. Mazurkiewicz

Immunocytochemistry is a powerful investigative approach in which one of the most exacting examples of specificity, that of the reaction of an antibody with its antigen, isused to localize tissue and cell specific molecules in situ. Following the introduction of fluorescent labeled antibodies in T950, a large number of molecules of biological interest had been studied with light microscopy, especially antigens involved in the pathogenesis of some diseases. However, with advances in electron microscopy, newer methods were needed which could reveal these reactions at the ultrastructural level. An electron dense label that could be coupled to an antibody without the loss of immunologic activity was desired.


1993 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 1187-1197 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.W. Dirks ◽  
F.M. van de Rijke ◽  
S. Fujishita ◽  
M. van der Ploeg ◽  
A.K. Raap

We have determined optimal conditions for the detection of mRNA sequences in cultured cells by nonradioactive in situ hybridization. For this purpose a number of different cell lines have been used: rat 9G cells for the detection of human cytomegalovirus immediate early mRNA, and HeLa as well as 5637 carcinoma cells for the detection of housekeeping gene mRNAs. Extensive optimization of fixation and pretreatment conditions revealed that most intense hybridization signals are obtained when cells are grown on glass microscope slides, fixed with a mixture of formaldehyde and acetic acid, pretreated with pepsin and denatured prior to hybridization. In addition, we also studied the potential of fluorochromized probes for the direct detection of multiple RNA sequences. The optimized in situ hybridization procedure revealed that immediate early mRNA transcripts are, in addition to a cytoplasmic localization, localized within nuclei of rat 9G cells. Double hybridization experiments showed that intron and exon sequences colocalize within the main nuclear signal. In addition, the presence of small, intron-specific, fluorescent spots scattered around the main nuclear signals indicates that intron sequences which are spliced out can be visualized. Additional information about the functioning of cells could be obtained by the detection of mRNA simultaneously with bromodeoxyuridine, incorporated during S-phase, or its cognate protein. The sensitivity of these methods is such that mRNAs of abundantly expressed housekeeping genes can be detected in a variety of cell lines with high signal to noise ratios.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Wang ◽  
Bin-Quan Luan ◽  
Zhiyu Yang ◽  
Xinyue Zhang ◽  
Brandon Ritzo ◽  
...  

Abstract Both cytosine-Ag-cytosine interactions and cytosine modifications in a DNA duplex have attracted great interest for research. Cytosine (C) modifications such as methylcytosine (mC) and hydroxymethylcytosine (hmC) are associated with tumorigenesis. However, a method for directly discriminating C, mC and hmC bases without labeling, modification and amplification is still missing. Additionally, the nature of coordination of Ag+ with cytosine-cytosine (C-C) mismatches is not clearly understood. Utilizing the alpha-hemolysin nanopore, we show that in the presence of Ag+, duplex stability is most increased for the cytosine-cytosine (C-C) pair, followed by the cytosine-methylcytosine (C-mC) pair and the cytosine-hydroxymethylcytosine (C-hmC) pair, which has no observable Ag+ induced stabilization. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the hydrogen-bond-mediated paring of a C-C mismatch results in a binding site for Ag+. Cytosine modifications (such as mC and hmC) disrupted the hydrogen bond, resulting in disruption of the Ag+ binding site. Our experimental method provides a novel platform to study the metal ion-DNA interactions and could also serve as a direct detection method for nucleobase modifications.


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