Methanol fixation & APC signal attenuation

From: Calman Prussin (CPRUSSIN@niaid.nih.gov)
Date: Thu Apr 18 2002 - 18:33:35 EST


We are doing intranuclear staining for transcription factors, which requires
a methanol fixation/permeabilization step.  We are finding that the methanol
fixation dramatically reduces APC fluorescence (of cell pre-stained with
mAb).

Staining protocol (simplified)
1. 4% PFA fix
2. stain for surface markers (FITC, PE, APC conjugated)
3. 80% methanol (-70 C) fixation
4. Perm with 0.5% saponin, stain for transcription factors with PE/Cy5
labeled secondary mAbs
5. Run

We find that methanol fixation reduces or eliminates the APC fluorescence,
but does not change the PE.

Questions:

1. Has anyone else seen this?
2. Why doesn't it change the PE fluorescence?
3. Solutions? The only thing I can think of is to switch to Cy5.



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