A One-Step Immunostaining Method to Visualize Rodent Muscle Fiber Type within a Single Specimen

PLoS One. 2016 Nov 4;11(11):e0166080. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166080. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

In this study, we present a quadruple immunostaining method for rapid muscle fiber typing of mice and rats using antibodies specific to the adult myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms MyHC1, 2A, 2X, and 2B, which are common marker proteins of distinct muscle fiber types. We developed rat monoclonal antibodies specific to each MyHC isoform and conjugated these four antibodies to fluorophores with distinct excitation and emission wavelengths. By mixing the four types of conjugated antibodies, MyHC1, 2A, 2X, and 2B could be distinguished within a single specimen allowing for facile delineation of skeletal muscle fiber types. Furthermore, we could observe hybrid fibers expressing MyHC2X and MyHC2B together in single longitudinal muscle sections from mice and rats, that was not attained in previous techniques. This staining method is expected to be applied to study muscle fiber type transition in response to environmental factors, and to ultimately develop techniques to regulate animal muscle fiber types.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal / immunology
  • Immunoassay / methods*
  • Mice
  • Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / immunology*
  • Myosin Heavy Chains / immunology
  • Protein Isoforms / immunology
  • Rats
  • Staining and Labeling / methods*

Substances

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal
  • Protein Isoforms
  • Myosin Heavy Chains

Grants and funding

This work was funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS; http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/index.html) KAKENHI #26712023, 22580136, and 20404056 to WM, and #26850083, 14J40234, and 11J40017 to SS. The cost of English proofreading service was supported by a Research Grant for Young Investigators of Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.