Histology / Immunohistochemistry

Standard histological and (immuno)histochemical techniques are routinely used in our laboratories, mainly on muscle tissue cross-sections, to determine various anatomical, chemical and/or metabolic properties of the tissue under investigation. These techniques are used for both cross-sectional comparisons of muscle characteristics between different populations/groups, but also for within-subject adaptations in response to the short- and/or long-term effects of exercise and/or nutritional interventions.

The standard techniques include amongst others:

• Muscle fiber type composition based on both ATPase and MHC staining
• SDH staining for determining SDH activity / oxidative capacity of muscle fibers
• ORO and PAS staining for determining intramyocellular lipid and glycogen storage
• CD31 staining for determining microvascularisation of muscle tissue
• pax7 and DAPI staining for determining myocellular satellite cell and myonuclear content

Generally, different stainings are also combined to determine co-localization and, as such, to yield more detailed information on e.g. on the fiber type specificity of certain metabolic properties (fiber type specific glycogen or lipid content) or myocellular characteristics (fiber type specific satellite cell content).