Replace paraffin embedding for frozen tissue sectioning: The process of fixation, dehydration, and infiltration with paraffin can damage or destroy some crucial antigens.
Avoid working with mounted slide and use
free-floating sections: Allows antibodies and other reagents to penetrate the tissue from all sides, especially when combined with overnight incubation in a shaker.
Thin vs. thick sections : What do you want to analyze? Thicker sections will allow more complex 3D reconstructions and blood vessel analysis.
DAB vs. immunofluorescence (IF): IF will produce less background and allows studying co-localization of multiple targets
What can you do to improve your microscopy images?
I often receive questions regarding how to take better images, so let’s start with the basics: improve your sample preparation! No microscope can make a miracle if your samples don’t look great! Things I don’t do anymore: (1/5)