Immunogold Probes in Electron Microscopy

Electron microscopy permits the detailed study of cell relationships within tissues and organelles within cells. Two ultrastructural techniques in which gold probes have proven invaluable are immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridization, and these will be described here. Until 1980, peroxidase was the marker of choice, but now colloidal gold is almost universally used. The advantages of colloidal gold are that: It is particulate and very dense, therefore easily identified on biological sections; It is small and will not obscure fine structural details, It can be prepared in several different sizes for use in multiple labeling experiments and quantitation, and It is easily conjugated to immunoglobulins or proteins A or G. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.