[Histonet] cytokeratin 18 in liver

[PALMER Jason (SVHM)]

Hello all.

Just wondering if anyone has experience with cytokeratin 18 immunohistochemistry labelling in liver (FFPE)?  I have used an Abcam rabbit anti human CK18 to try and label hepatocytes in both human and mouse adult liver and have found that I get strong labelling in bile duct epithelia but essentially nothing in hepatocytes.  I say essentially nothing, but there does appear to be faint  possible specific staining in a few hepatocytes.  From my reading, I had thought that cytokeratin 18 (and 8) are abundantly expressed in hepatocytes and should be easy to label, but that is not what I have found.

We are trying to tissue engineer liver from progenitor cells in a mouse model, and need to be able to identify these cells, whether liver progenitors or mature / differentiated hepatocytes, hence my choice of an antibody against CK18 which should label both.  We have also used a pan cytokeratin (Dako Z0622) with mixed results and were hoping  for something a little more defined.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated,

Jason


Jason Palmer
Histology Laboratory Coordinator
O'Brien Institute
42 Fitzroy St, Fitzroy Victoria 3065
Australia
tel +61 3 9288 4045
fax +61 3 9416 0926
email: jason.palmer <@t> svhm.org.au

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