[Histonet] staining brain vessels

[iskaliora]

I was wondering if anybody might have an idea with the following  
problem we are experiencing:  we want to stain for blood vessels in  
sections of mouse brain.  Our experimental tissues have been fixed  
overnight in 4% paraformaldehyde and have been sitting in PBS since.   
We have tried staining with antibodies against desmin, SMA, and  
collagen but we get NO specific signal.  We recently tried a non-fixed  
mouse brain and got desmin to work immediately.  The problem is that  
we need to use the fixed brains because they are our experimental  
model and it would take too long (2 years to be exact) to generate the  
same samples.  If anybody has come across such a problem before, or  
has a specific protocol for vessels that works on PFA fixed brain, we  
would appreciate the suggestions!
thanks in advance!
Irini




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Irini Skaliora, PhD
Investigator C᾽ (Assistant Professor)
Developmental Biology Division
Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (BRFAA)
Soranou Efessiou 4
Athens 11527
tel. +30-210-6597203 (office)
tel. +30-210-6597482 (lab)
fax. +30-210-6597545
email: iskaliora <@t> bioacademy.gr