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Immunohisto- and Cytochemistry Analysis of Connexins

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Abstract

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is a ubiquitous used technique to identify and analyze protein expression in the context of tissue and cell morphology. In the connexin research field, IHC is applied to identify the subcellular location of connexin proteins, as this can be directly linked to their functionality. The present chapter describes a protocol for fluorescent IHC to detect connexin proteins in tissues slices and cells, with slight modifications depending on the nature of biological sample, histological processing, and/or protein expression level. Basically, fluorescent IHC is a short, simple, and cost-effective technique, which allows the visualization of proteins based on fluorescent-labeled antibody–antigen recognition.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the University Hospital of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel-Belgium (Willy Gepts Fonds UZ-VUB), the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO grants G009514N and G010214N), the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant 335476), the University of São Paulo-Brazil and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP SPEC grant 2013/50420-6).

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Correspondence to Bruno Cogliati .

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Cogliati, B. et al. (2016). Immunohisto- and Cytochemistry Analysis of Connexins. In: Vinken, M., Johnstone, S. (eds) Gap Junction Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1437. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3664-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3664-9_4

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-3662-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-3664-9

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