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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Chemically-blocked Antibody Microarray for Multiplexed High-throughput Profiling of Specific Protein Glycosylation in Complex Samples
Published on: May 4, 2012
[Production of monoclonal antibody that recognizes glycogen and its application for immunohistochemistry]
1Department of Oral Anatomy, Faculty of Dentistry, Tokyo Medical and Dental University.
Insights
Researchers developed a novel monoclonal antibody that specifically targets glycogen. This antibody offers a more precise method for detecting glycogen compared to the standard periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) reaction.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry
- Immunology
- Histology
Context:
- The periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) reaction is commonly used for glycogen detection but lacks specificity.
- Developing specific reagents for biomolecules is crucial for accurate biological research.
Purpose:
- To create a highly specific monoclonal antibody for detecting glycogen.
- To evaluate the antibody's reactivity and specificity using various immunocytochemical and biochemical methods.
Summary:
- A monoclonal antibody was generated using mandibular condylar cartilage as the antigen.
- The antibody demonstrated reactivity with chondrocytes, hepatocytes, and skeletal muscle cells, localizing to glycogen particles via electron microscopy.
- Dot blotting and alpha-amylase digestion confirmed the antibody's specific recognition of glycogen or related sugar chains.
Impact:
- This novel antibody provides a specific alternative to the PAS reaction for glycogen detection.
- It can be a valuable tool in histology and biochemistry for precise glycogen visualization and quantification.
Abstract:
In this study, I made a monoclonal antibody, using the mandibular condylar cartilage as antigen. By light microscopic immunocytochemical observations, this antibody reacted with the chondrocytes both in the mandibular condyle and the costal cartilage, hepatocytes and skeletal muscle cells. By electron microscopic immunocytochemical observations, reaction products (gold particles) were seen on the glycogen particles in the chondrocytes. Further, by dot blotting assay, this antibody was found to react directly with the purified glycogen. Meanwhile, all these reactions disappeared after alpha-amylase digestion. These results indicate that this antibody specifically recognizes glycogen or glycogen-related sugar chains. Therefore, I think that this antibody is very much useful for detecting the glycogen instead of the PAS reaction, since PAS reaction is not a specific method to detect the glycogen.

