[Histonet] need help with IHC detection of human cells in mouse
tissue
Garlits, John
John.Garlits <@t> stjude.org
Thu Mar 18 17:51:40 CST 2004
Hi,
I was wondering if anybody could help me out. We want to look for human cells engrafted in mice, particularly in formalin-fixed, acid decalcified, paraffin-embedded tissue. I have so far tried two anti-human beta-2 microglobulin antibodies.
The first I tried has been used in human/sheep transplant tissue, and I tried it, but unfortunately it is an IgM kappa, so it failed with the Biogenex mouse-on-mouse IHC kit, which it turns out is not made for IgM antibodies. If anybody is aware of a good way to use a mouse IgM on both human and mouse tissue, I'd love to know. I have looked for a good secondary antibody for this purpose, but have had no luck so far.
The second antibody I tried is from Novocastra and distributed by Vector Labs. It is a rabbit polyclonal to human beta-2-microglobulin. The trouble I had was nonspecific binding in control mouse tissue. I was thinking to use some of the Biogenex mouse-on-mouse kit reagents to help block mouse antigens, but I do not know if this would actually work. The second problem with this antibody was that I did not always see positive marking in human tissue (especially osteocytes), which I thought should be pretty well all positive since it is human tissue. Is the expression of beta-2-microglobulin so variable?
Has anyone tried any other general human cell marker in other animals? I did a quick search for beta actin, but it seems most of those cross-react with mouse.
Thank you!
John Garlits, M.S.
Senior Research Technician
Hematology Oncology Division
Experimental Hematology Department
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
332 N Lauderdale
Memphis, TN 38108
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