Immunohistochemical analysis of carbohydrate antigens in chronic inflammatory gastrointestinal diseases.

Over the last four decades, immunohistochemistry (IHC) has become an invaluable technique to detect antigens in tissue sections. Compared to Western blotting analysis, IHC is advantageous in determining histological distribution and localization of the antigen. Another advantage, if one can access human formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks of disease tissues, is that IHC makes it possible to analyze diseases retrospectively from archived pathological tissue specimens. In this chapter, we describe protocols used for both conventional and multiple immunostainings using FFPE tissue sections, which have been used for quantitative analysis of high endothelial venule (HEV)-like vessels and lymphocyte subsets attached to HEV-like vessels in our studies of chronic inflammatory gastrointestinal diseases. We also describe in detail a protocol using an L-selectinIgM chimera in situ binding assay on FFPE tissue sections for functional detection of L-selectin ligand carbohydrates expressed on HEV-like vessels. After presenting each protocol, we provide practical examples for its use obtained from our studies. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.