Micro-immunohistochemistry using a microfluidic probe

A flexible method to extract more high-quality information from tissue sections is critically needed for both drug discovery and clinical pathology. Here, we present micro-immunohistochemistry (μIHC), a method for staining tissue sections at the micrometre scale. Nanolitres of antibody solutions are confined over micrometre-sized areas of tissue sections using a vertical microfluidic probe (vMFP) for their incubation with primary antibodies, the key step in conventional IHC. The vMFP operates several micrometres above the tissue section, can be interactively positioned on it, and even enables the staining of individual cores of tissue microarrays with multiple antigens. μIHC using such a microfluidic probe is preservative of tissue samples and reagents, alleviates antibody cross-reactivity issues, and allows a wide range of staining conditions to be applied on a single tissue section. This method may therefore find broad use in tissue-based diagnostics and in research.