what is the maximum time limit for doing Immuno Histochemistry in paraffin embedded tissues? will the antigens survive in the tissue for long time?
This cannot be answered with an exact time. It depends on the antigen, on the condition of block-storage, of access of air-oxygen to the antigen.
I think it is worth trying even if the block is from before decades, but it is highly recommended to stain a positiv control with the investigated tissue.
In the paraffin block most of the antigens are save for a long time. Slides will lost their antigens very fast by chemical reactions or microorganism. It is very important using control tissue like Gudrun Lang wrote before.
If you treated the fresh tissue in the right way- very important is the fixation and embedding- you are able to work with the blocks for a long time.
I have worked whith embedded paraffin tissues of two years (human placenta, rat brain) and I haven't had problem with the antigen. But it depends if you treated the fresh tissue in the right way
I have done Immuno on several yoaers old paraffin sections with good results but it depens on the quality of your fixation and embedding. Positiv controls will help in any case, because also the quality of antibodies is chaging during the time.
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