Skip to main content
Book cover

mTOR pp 215–225Cite as

Immunohistochemical Analysis of mTOR Activity in Tissues

  • Protocol
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 821))

Abstract

mTOR is a key regulator of cell growth and size, and its activity is often dysregulated in a wide variety of diseases. The mTOR signaling pathway is also a therapeutic target for many diseases, including cancer. Immunohistochemistry is a powerful method to assess mTOR activity in clinical/histological samples, however, care should be taken in choosing the targets for determining mTOR activity due to the complexity of its regulation. This chapter describes the most up-to-date methods for visualizing mTOR activity by immunohistochemistry using commercially available antibodies, including considerations for validating new antibodies for assessing mTOR signaling.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Protocol
USD   49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Springer Nature is developing a new tool to find and evaluate Protocols. Learn more

References

  1. Evren, S., Dermen, A., Lockwood, G., Fleshner, N., and Sweet, J. 2010 Immunohistochemical examination of the mTORC1 pathway in high grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) and prostatic adenocarcinomas (PCa): a tissue microarray study (TMA), Prostate 70, 1429–1436.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Clark, C., Shah, S., Herman-Ferdinandez, L., Ekshyyan, O., Abreo, F., Rong, X., McLarty, J., Lurie, A., Milligan, E. J., and Nathan, C. O. 2010 Teasing out the best molecular marker in the AKT/mTOR pathway in head and neck squamous cell cancer patients, Laryngoscope 120, 1159–1165.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hirashima, K., Baba, Y., Watanabe, M., Karashima, R., Sato, N., Imamura, Y., Hiyoshi, Y., Nagai, Y., Hayashi, N., Iyama, K., and Baba, H. 2010 Phosphorylated mTOR expression is associated with poor prognosis for patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, Ann Surg Oncol 17, 2486–2493.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Andersen, J. N., Sathyanarayanan, S., Di Bacco, A., Chi, A., Zhang, T., Chen, A. H., Dolinski, B., Kraus, M., Roberts, B., Arthur, W., Klinghoffer, R. A., Gargano, D., Li, L., Feldman, I., Lynch, B., Rush, J., Hendrickson, R. C., Blume-Jensen, P., and Paweletz, C. P. 2010 Pathway-based identification of biomarkers for targeted therapeutics: personalized oncology with PI3K pathway inhibitors, Sci Transl Med 2, 43 ra55.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Kim, J., Jonasch, E., Alexander, A., Short, J. D., Cai, S., Wen, S., Tsavachidou, D., Tamboli, P., Czerniak, B. A., Do, K. A., Wu, K. J., Marlow, L. A., Wood, C. G., Copland, J. A., and Walker, C. L. (2009) Cytoplasmic sequestration of p27 via AKT phosphorylation in renal cell carcinoma, Clin Cancer Res 15, 81–90.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Baba, Y., Nosho, K., Shima, K., Meyerhardt, J. A., Chan, A. T., Engelman, J. A., Cantley, L. C., Loda, M., Giovannucci, E., Fuchs, C. S., and Ogino, S. 2010 Prognostic significance of AMP-activated protein kinase expression and modifying effect of MAPK3/1 in colorectal cancer, Br J Cancer 103, 1025–1033.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Werner, M., Chott, A., Fabiano, A., and Battifora, H. (2000) Effect of formalin tissue fixation and processing on immunohistochemistry, Am J Surg Pathol 24, 1016–1019.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Onda, H., Lueck, A., Marks, P. W., Warren, H. B., and Kwiatkowski, D. J. (1999) Tsc2(+/−) mice develop tumors in multiple sites that express gelsolin and are influenced by genetic background, J Clin Invest 104, 687–695.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Kwiatkowski, D. J., Zhang, H., Bandura, J. L., Heiberger, K. M., Glogauer, M., el-Hashemite, N., and Onda, H. (2002) A mouse model of TSC1 reveals sex-dependent lethality from liver hemangiomas, and up-regulation of p70S6 kinase activity in Tsc1 null cells, Hum Mol Genet 11, 525–534.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Shackelford, D. B., Vasquez, D. S., Corbeil, J., Wu, S., Leblanc, M., Wu, C. L., Vera, D. R., and Shaw, R. J. (2009) mTOR and HIF-1alpha-mediated tumor metabolism in an LKB1 mouse model of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106, 11137–11142.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Blando, J., Portis, M., Benavides, F., Alexander, A., Mills, G., Dave, B., Conti, C. J., Kim, J., and Walker, C. L. (2009) PTEN deficiency is fully penetrant for prostate adenocarcinoma in C57BL/6 mice via mTOR-dependent growth, Am J Pathol 174, 1869–1879.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Yeung, R. S., Xiao, G. H., Everitt, J. I., Jin, F., and Walker, C. L. (1995) Allelic loss at the tuberous sclerosis 2 locus in spontaneous tumors in the Eker rat, Mol Carcinog 14, 28–36.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cheryl L. Walker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Kim, J., Otto, N., Conti, C.J., Gimenz-Conti, I.B., Walker, C.L. (2012). Immunohistochemical Analysis of mTOR Activity in Tissues. In: Weichhart, T. (eds) mTOR. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 821. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-430-8_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-430-8_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-61779-429-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-61779-430-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics