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Dear Michal--

On 3/8/2013 2:36 AM, Michał Majkowski wrote:

> I do not know if this is a good place to address my problem as it
> regards immunofluorescence. The problem is: we have in the lab
> antibodies dedicated to Western Blot (according to manufacturer; Abcam).
> We used them to IF and we obtained some nice images. What do you think
> about such data? Should it be confirmed by IgG dedicated to IF? Thank
> you for help.

The quick and safe answer is that you can never trust any antibody for 
any purpose without first characterizing it thoroughly.

Antibodies that work for one application (e.g., westerns) may be 
completely unusable for another (e.g., IF)...or they may work perfectly. 
  A starting point is to compare the labeling that you obtain, to the 
labeling that's previously been published.  The "gold standard" is to 
demonstrate that the labeling is not observed in a knockout animal.

Cliff Saper at Journal of Comparative Neurology published an editorial 
on antibody use that may be helpful.  It can be found at: 
http://www.wiley.com/legacy/wileyblackwell/images/antibody_editorial .

Good luck!

Martin Wessendorf

-- 
Martin Wessendorf, Ph.D.                   office: (612) 626-0145
Assoc Prof, Dept Neuroscience                 lab: (612) 624-2991
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