BD Pharmingen™ Purified Mouse anti-GATA4

For more information, please refer to: http://www.bdbiosciences.com/pharmingen/protocols/Western_Blotting.shtml

and Bioimaging: http://www.bdbiosciences.com/pharmingen/protocols/Bioimaging_Certified.shtml

Recommended Protocol for Bioimaging:

1.        Seed the cells in appropriate culture medium at an appropriate cell density in a BD Falcon™ 96-well Imaging Plate (Cat. No. 353219), and

        culture overnight to 48 hours.

2.        Remove the culture medium from the wells, and wash (one to two times) with 100 μl of 1× PBS.

3.        Fix the cells by adding 100 µl of fresh 3.7% Formaldehyde in PBS or BD Cytofix™ fixation buffer (Cat. No. 554655) to each well and incubating for 10 minutes at room temperature (RT).

4.        Remove the fixative from the wells, and wash the wells (one to two times) with 100 μl of 1× PBS.

5.        Permeabilize the cells using either cold methanol (a), Triton™ X-100 (b), or Saponin (c):

a.        Add 100 µl of -20°C 90% methanol or -20°C BD™ Phosflow Perm Buffer III (Cat. No. 558050) to each well and incubate for 5 minutes at RT.

b.        Add 100 µl of 0.1% Triton™ X-100 to each well and incubate for 5 minutes at RT.

c.        Add 100 µl of 1× Perm/Wash buffer (Cat. No. 554723) to each well and incubate for 15 to 30 minutes at RT.  Continue to use 1× Perm/Wash buffer for all subsequent wash and dilutions steps.

6.        Remove the permeabilization buffer from the wells, and wash one to two times with 100 μl of appropriate buffer (either 1× PBS or 1× Perm/Wash buffer, see step 5.c.).

7.        Optional blocking step:  Remove the wash buffers, and block the cells by adding 100 µl of blocking buffer BD Pharmingen™ Stain Buffer (FBS) (Cat. No. 554656) or 3% FBS in appropriate dilution buffer to each well and incubating for 15 to 30 minutes at RT.

8.        Dilute the antibody to its optimal working concentration in appropriate dilution buffer.  Titrate purified (unconjugated) antibodies and second-step reagents to determine the optimal concentration.  If using a Bioimaging Certified antibody conjugate, dilute it 1:10.

9.        Add 50 µl of diluted antibody per well and incubate for 60 minutes at RT.  Incubate in the dark if using fluorescently labeled antibodies.

10.        Remove the antibody, and wash the wells three times with 100 μl of wash buffer.  An optional detergent wash (100 μl of 0.05% Tween in 1× PBS) can be included prior to the regular wash steps.

11.   If the antibody being used is fluorescently labeled, then move to step 12.  Otherwise, if using a purified unlabeled antibody, repeat steps 8 to 10 with a fluorescently labeled second-step reagent to detect the purified antibody.

12.        After the final wash, counter-stain the nuclei by adding 100 μl of a 2 μg/ml solution of Hoechst 33342 (eg, Sigma-Aldrich Cat. No. B2261) in 1× PBS to each well at least 15 minutes before imaging.

13.   View and analyze the cells on an appropriate imaging instrument.  

Recommended Assay Procedure for Tissue Sections:

1.        Harvest target organs or tissues and flush with PBS.

2.        Place the tissues in cassettes and fix with 10% neutral buffered formalin (Fisher SF100-4) for 16 hrs.

3.        Remove the fixative and proceed with processing and embedding in paraffin using standard protocols.*  

4.        Cut paraffin-embedded tissue sections (5 µm) using a microtome, adhere sections onto colorfrost slides (Fisher 12-550-17), and allow them

        to air dry.*

5.        Deparaffinize and re-hydrate the sections.*

6.        Treat with BD Retrievagen A solution (Cat. No. 550524) by heating the slides in a pressure cooker at 121°C for 15 minutes at 17 psi.*

7.        Allow the slides to cool to room temperature in the Retrievagen A, rinse the slides with tap water, and store in PBS prior to antibody

        staining.

8.        Sections can be simultaneously stained with a cocktail of multiple antibodies at pre-optimized concentration, for 2 hours at room

        temperature.

9.        Wash the sections in 1× PBS.

10.     If required label cellular DNA with 2 µg/ml Hoechst 33342 for 30 minutes, and wash with 1× PBS.

11.        Place cover slips on the sections using Aqua-Mount (Lerner Labs 13800).

12.        View and analyze the samples on an appropriate imaging instrument, such as the BD Pathway™ 435 High-Content Bioimaging System.  

        * for more details please see http://www.bdbiosciences.com/pharmingen/protocols/Paraffin_Sections.shtml

1. Since applications vary, each investigator should titrate the reagent to obtain optimal results.
2. Please refer to www.bdbiosciences.com/us/s/resources for technical protocols.
3. This antibody has been developed and certified for the bioimaging application. However, a routine bioimaging test is not performed on every lot. Researchers are encouraged to titrate the reagent for optimal performance.
4. Caution: Sodium azide yields highly toxic hydrazoic acid under acidic conditions. Dilute azide compounds in running water before discarding to avoid accumulation of potentially explosive deposits in plumbing.
5. Triton is a trademark of the Dow Chemical Company.