[Comparison of various immune surface labeling methods for scanning electron microscopy with the example of a surface antigen protein of the yeast Candida albicans]

The labeling of immunocomplexes for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a fairly new technique, and the various procedures, that have been proposed, have not yet been compared. Such comparative evaluation was performed with Candida protease as a target antigen. This secretory enzyme of the opportunistic yeast Candida albicans can be localized on the surface of fungal blastopores and mycelia, both after growth in proteinaceous medium and upon infection of murine peritoneal macrophages. The presence of the protease antigen was confirmed by immunofluorescence and by immunoperoxidase-light microscopy. The decoration of protease - anti protease complexes for SEM was attempted with colloids derived from the immunoperoxidase reaction, by the immunogold technique, and by antibodies linked to beads of synthetic polymers (polystyrene, polymethacrylate, polyacrolein). In addition, inactivated Staphylococcus aureus was used, which binds to antibodies through its protein-A. The high resolution by SEM of surface structures was matched only by the colloid based decoration techniques. All conjugates with beads suffered from inconsistent binding, which did not correspond with the distribution of the surface antigen. The comparatively best result with beads was obtained with polystyrene (Latex). Colloid based techniques in addition allow for critical point drying, which cannot be applied to synthetic beads in the usual manner.