A note on the use of picric acid-paraformaldehyde-glutaraldehyde fixative for correlated light and electron microscopic immunocytochemistry

P Somogyi, H Takagi - Neuroscience, 1982 - Elsevier
P Somogyi, H Takagi
Neuroscience, 1982Elsevier
The buffered picric acid-paraformaldehyde fixative originally recommended for
electronmicroscopy 7, 9 and which has since been used occasionally for light-microscopic
immunocytochemistry, has been supplemented with glutaraldehyde and used as primary
fixative for the perfusion of rat brains. In the basal ganglia and preoptic area, substance P,
somatostatin and leu-enkephalin immunoreactive material was localized with the unlabelled
antibody enzyme method in thick sections cut from freeze thaw treated blocks. Good …
Abstract
The buffered picric acid-paraformaldehyde fixative originally recommended for electronmicroscopy7,9 and which has since been used occasionally for light-microscopic immunocytochemistry, has been supplemented with glutaraldehyde and used as primary fixative for the perfusion of rat brains. In the basal ganglia and preoptic area, substance P, somatostatin and leu-enkephalin immunoreactive material was localized with the unlabelled antibody enzyme method in thick sections cut from freeze thaw treated blocks. Good penetration of the antibodies without the use of detergents and the light background of the osmium-treated sections allowed the selection for electron-microscopy of immunoreactive structures as small as individual boutons that had been identified at the light-microscopic level.
It is suggested that the procedure may be useful for electron-microscopic sampling of immunoreactive structures occurring infrequently over a large area or for the electron-microscopic study of light-microscopically classified neurons.
Elsevier