Preserving Cytonemes for Immunocytochemistry of Cultured Adherent Cells

Cytonemes are specialized signalling filopodia that have a role in development and cellular differentiation. However, they are not well preserved by standard fixation techniques to study protein localization and interactions. A recent methodological advance has yielded improvements in cytoneme preservation using glutaraldehyde fixation and sodium borohydride treatment to reduce background. We herein describe a safer method for effective blocking using glycine following glutaraldehyde fixation of cytonemes on cultured adherent cells and demonstrate its effectiveness in immunocytochemistry.