[Histonet] marker for brain inflammation

[John A. Kiernan]

Checking old emails, I came across this
unacknowledged item. Did you receive my reply to
your query? If so, was it in any way helpful?
 John Kiernan
 Anatomy Dept, U.W.O.
 London, Canada.
 ______________________
On 5th November 2006 John Kiernan wrote:
> 
> Inflammation is defined as the response of living
> tissue to injury, characterized by vasodilation,
> swelling (increased vascular permeability) and
> pain. The second of these cardinal signs is
> demonstrable by immunostaining for plasma
> proteins. In the normal central nervous system
> (except in the choroid plexuses, the 5
> circumventricular organs, and at the lamina
> cribrosa of the optic nerve head), plasma proteins
> occur only within blood vessels. If you see them
> outside vessels there has been a failure of the
> blood-brain barrier, which could well be due to
> inflammation.
> 
> There is an artifact to avoid. Postmortem delay
> can allow plasma proteins to diffuse out of the
> vasculature and into some neurons and neuroglial
> cells. I've seen this in human brain, and the
> artifact is well documented also for animals. See:
>    Mori S, Sternberger N h, Herman NM, Sternberger
> l A (1991) Leakage and neuronal uptake of serum
> protein in aged and Alzheimer brains: a postmortem
> phenomenon with antemortem etiology. Laboratory
> Investigation 64: 345-351.
>    Fabian RH (1992) Poor reliability of
> immunocytochemical localization of IgG in
> immersion-fixed tissue from the central nervous
> system. Journal of Histochemistry and
> Cytochemistry 40: 987-991.
>    Loberg EM, Torvik A (1992) Plasma proteins in
> normal neurons: immunohistochemical studies on
> autopsy material and experimental animals. Acta
> pathologica et microbiologica scandinavica 100:
> 431-436.
> 
> A similar artifact is seen if immunohistochemistry
> is attempted on unfixed cryostat sections of the
> rat's brain.
>    Sparrow JR (1980) Immunohistochemical study of
> the blood-brain barrier. Production of an
> artifact. Journal of Histochemistry and
> Cytochemistry 26: 570-572.
> 
> Caroline Bass wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm wondering if someone could suggest a marker or stain that could
> > help visualize inflammation.  I am working on a project where I
> > inject a virus in the brain to introduce genes in neurons.  However,
> > I want to make sure that the injection itself, or the neuronal
> > infection is not causing a large degree of inflammation.  Could
> > someone suggest a good way to visualize this?  I imagine some sort of
> > immune marker will do, perhaps mF4/80?
> >
> > thanks,
> >
> > Caroline
> >
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