title: Endogenous biotin staining in a subset of spinal neuronal cell bodies: a potential confounding factor for neuroanatomical studies.
abstract: Biotinylated compounds are commonly used to label neuronal cell bodies via intracellular filling or retrograde tracing. Endogenous concentrations of biotin within a subset of neuronal cell bodies would pose a problem for interpreting such experiments. Here I report that a subset of turtle spinal cord neuronal cell bodies strongly stains for biotin, using the avidin-biotin-horseradish peroxidase (ABC) reaction, in the absence of any exogenous biotinylated compound.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, 730 Van Vleet Oval, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA. ari@ou.edu
authors.forename: Ari
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berkowitz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001710:Biotin / Q000032:analysis; D019921:Biotinylation; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D006651:Histocytochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D009474:Neurons / Q000737:chemistry; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000737:chemistry; D014426:Turtles
chemical_list: D001710:Biotin