Recommendations

What is immunofluorescence test used for?

What is immunofluorescence test used for?

Immunofluorescence assay (IFA) is a standard virologic technique to identify the presence of antibodies by their specific ability to react with viral antigens expressed in infected cells; bound antibodies are visualized by incubation with fluorescently labeled antihuman antibody.

What is antibody staining and immunofluorescence?

Immunofluorescence staining is the most frequently applied technique to detect and visualize various molecules in biological samples. This can result in a time-consuming and costly methodical work to establish “simple” antibody staining.

How does a fluorescent antibody test work?

The fluorescent antibodies bind to the bacteria on a microscope slide, allowing ready detection of the bacteria using a fluorescence microscope. Thus, the DFA technique is valuable for visualizing certain bacteria that are difficult to isolate or culture from patient samples.

What is fluorescent antibody technique?

fluorescent antibody technique (FAT) or immunofluorescence a technique used to show up the presence of a particular ANTIGEN, in which an antibody is labelled with a fluorescent dye (fluorochrome) that combines with the antigen and is subsequently located by its FLUORESCENCE.

What are the disadvantages of using immunofluorescence?

The labeled second antibodies are conveniently obtained. The disadvantages of indirect immunofluorescence are the potential cross reactivity, finding labeled primary antibody which is more difficult to get especially for multiple labeling experiments.

What are the types of immunofluorescence?

There are two classes of immunofluorescence techniques, primary (or direct) and secondary (or indirect).

When is direct immunofluorescence used?

Direct immunofluorescence is a useful supplement for the accurate diagnosis of immune-mediated dermatological disorders, and helps to classify various autoimmune bullous disorders. When the clinical features/histopathology are inconclusive, the diagnosis often can be made on the basis of the DIF findings alone.

When does fluorescence occur?

Fluorescence occurs when electrons go back from a singlet excited state to the ground state. But in some molecules the spins of the excited electrons can be switched to a triplet state in a process called inter system crossing. These electrons lose energy until they are in the triplet ground state.

Can immunofluorescence be used on live cells?

Preparation of fluorescence Staining procedures can apply to both fixed antigen in the cytoplasm or to cell surface antigens on living cells, called “membrane immunofluorescence”.