I want to do immunocytochemistry with mesenchymal stem cells. I've been reading through different protocols and some mention having to coat their coverslips with gelatin or fibronectin whereas some don't. May I know what your experience is when using mesenchymal stem cells? Do I need to pre-coat the glass coverslips?
If your cells adhere well to the cover slips then you don't need to. I coat my cover slips with fibronectin mainly for primary cultures from embryonic tissues. The coating helps the tissues adhere to the cover slip and allow the cells to grow.
Dear Christine,
Although coating the glass cover slips is not a tedious job, I really don't think that it is mandatory to perform the same for an immunocytochemistry experiment. We do use Fibronectin and matrigel in our lab for differentiation experiments of mesenchymal stem cells, when the cultures have to go for long duration upto 28 days or a month. Also, it might add background disturbance in your immunocytochemistry experiments.
So be careful !!
All the best ....
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