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Updated: Dec 26, 2025
A Rapid Method for Multispectral Fluorescence Imaging of Frozen Tissue Sections
Published on: March 30, 2020
Identification of Murine and Human Innate Lymphoid Cells in Frozen Tissue Sections Using Immunofluorescence
Emma E Dutton1, David R Withers2
1Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. eed107@alumni.bham.ac.uk.
Insights
This study presents a new immunofluorescence method to identify innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in tissue sections. This technique helps understand the cellular microenvironments where ILCs reside and function.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Cell Biology
- Tissue Microenvironments
Background:
- Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are crucial for tissue homeostasis and immune responses.
- Understanding ILCs' local cellular niches is limited, despite extensive study of their development and function.
- Current methods like flow cytometry offer limited insight into the in situ cellular composition surrounding ILCs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and describe a methodology for identifying ILC populations within their native tissue microenvironments.
- To enable fundamental insights into the cellular niches of ILCs using immunofluorescence staining.
- To provide a technique applicable to both murine and human tissue samples.
Main Methods:
- Development of an immunofluorescence staining protocol for frozen tissue sections.
- Identification of murine and human ILC populations using specific immunofluorescence markers.
- Application of the method to analyze the cellular composition of ILC niches.
Main Results:
- Successful identification of ILC populations in frozen murine and human tissue sections.
- Demonstration of the utility of immunofluorescence for basic characterization of ILC microenvironments.
- Establishment of a foundational method for further investigation into ILC niche composition.
Conclusions:
- Immunofluorescence staining of tissue sections is a valuable approach for studying ILC microenvironments.
- The described methodology facilitates the identification of ILCs in situ, offering basic insights into their niche composition.
- This technique serves as a basis for future research into the complex interactions within ILC niches.
Abstract:
ILCs interact with multiple cell types within their local environment to integrate a wealth of different signals into coordinated responses that regulate tissue homeostasis as well as immune responses upon challenge. While the development and function of ILCs has been extensively studied, principally using flow cytometry, there is limited understanding of the precise composition of cellular niches within which ILCs reside. While this might be optimally studied using dynamic live imaging approaches, immunofluorescence staining of tissue sections can provide fundamental basic information regarding the nature of these microenvironments. Here, a methodology enabling the identification of murine and human ILC populations in frozen tissue sections using immunofluorescence is described.
