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The effect of post-mortem delay on immunohistochemical labelling—a short review

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Abstract

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is a routine technique in diagnostic and experimental pathology. Most protocols are developed for tissues which have been optimally collected into fixative or frozen rapidly after death. In practice, tissue samples often come from animals that have died unexpectedly during an experimental study or from diagnostic samples where there is a significant delay before fixation. Continued cellular metabolism and enzyme activity (autolysis) after death have the potential to alter the expression of antigens either positively through initial cellular responses to anoxia or negatively by degradation of tissue proteins. It is important to understand the effect that these changes may have on the reliability of the chosen tissue markers for both diagnostic and quantitative analysis. This paper will review the literature in this area and illustrate the effect of temperature and time of post-mortem delay in rat and dog tissues for some commonly used cellular markers: cytokeratin, vimentin, factor VIII-related antigen, Ki67, PCNA and activated caspase 3 using previously unpublished data from a number of studies.

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Acknowledgements

All experiments involving animals were carried out under Home Office-approved conditions and in accordance with European Directive 2003/63/EC and all subsequent amendments. Tissues from non-experimental animals were obtained following ethical review and with permission of the owner. Data shown in Fig. 2 has previously been reported in abstract form (Society of Toxicologic Pathology meeting 2006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology and Infectious Diseases, Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, Hatfield, Herts, AL9 7TA, UK

    Cheryl L. Scudamore, Heather K. Hodgson & Ken C. Smith

  2. Covance Laboratories Ltd, Otley Road, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG3 1PY, UK

    Lee Patterson, Anna Macdonald & Fiona Brown

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  1. Cheryl L. Scudamore
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  2. Heather K. Hodgson
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  3. Lee Patterson
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  4. Anna Macdonald
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  5. Fiona Brown
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  6. Ken C. Smith
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Correspondence to Cheryl L. Scudamore.

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Scudamore, C.L., Hodgson, H.K., Patterson, L. et al. The effect of post-mortem delay on immunohistochemical labelling—a short review. Comp Clin Pathol 20, 95–101 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00580-010-1149-4

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