Immunohistochemistry Flashcards
What is Immuno-histochemistry (IHC) ?
An exploitation of the preferential binding properties of antibodies (immunoglobulins) to detect specified markers (antigens)
What is a polyclonal antibody, and its down sides?
They are proteins with multiple theoretical epitopes. (able to generate multiple different antibodies to a given protein)
Each different antibody within the mixture will have varying binding affinity and specificity to the target of interest
What is a monoclonal antibody
Formations derived from a single unique colony of activated plasma cells that display he defined characteristics of a single antibody
What is flourescent microsopy and how does it help IHC?
A microscopy method that utilises flourescent dye that binds directly to the antibodies allowing visualisation
What is a primary antibody in flourescent microscopy?
The first antibody being targetd for visualisation
