title: Albumin in immunohistochemistry: Foe and friend.
abstract: Immunohistochemical procedures constitute a high methodological value in both pathologic diagnostics and research. Staining quality depends on a large variety of interference factors. Primarily, background staining reduces the quality of evaluation by reducing the chromatic discrimination. For the identification of important interference factors, various incubation steps and composition of solutions recommended in routine protocols were altered or omitted in our study. Surprisingly, the most important effect concerning background staining reduction could be significantly attributed to the omission of albumin which usually is recommended as a reducer of background stainings. However, in contrast to this negative effect, albumin could also increase specific staining intensity. These findings lead to the recommendation of a careful use of albumin in immunohistochemistry because of the dichotomous effects mentioned above. Furthermore, these results imply that in case of a good specific staining pattern, the use of albumin in immunohistochemical solutions merely exerts significant negative background staining effects.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Brain Research, University of Tuebingen, Medical School, D-72076 Tuebingen, Germany. michel-guy-andr.mittelbronn@med.uni-tuebingen.de
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mittelbronn
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dietz
authors.forename: Perikles
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Rudi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beschorner
authors.forename: Ariane
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schleich
authors.forename: Thai D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meyermann
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schlaszus
mesh_terms: D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000378:metabolism; D004475:Ectoderm / Q000378:metabolism; D004707:Endoderm / Q000378:metabolism; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000378:metabolism; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000737:chemistry*; D013194:Staining and Labeling
chemical_list: D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine