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- Table of Contents
Plan AKT2 staining in paraffin sections using breast glandular cells as a high-staining reference and heart cardiomyocytes as a not-detected reference (HPA tissue IHC). Use the IHC-validated antibody to assess cytoplasmic staining, and interpret the reference patterns with the atlas’s uncertain reliability in mind (datasheet PB9043; HPA tissue IHC).
Expected localisation, validated protocols, controls and antibodies — the at-a-glance facts below, then the full design guide.
| Expected localisation | General cytoplasmic tissue staining (HPA tissue IHC) | |
| Staining pattern | Cytoplasmic staining in glandular and other cells (HPA tissue IHC) | |
| Antigen retrieval | Citrate pH 6 HIER, heat-mediated (datasheet PB9043) | |
| Positive control | Adrenal gland+4 more · see all | |
| Negative control | Heart muscle |
| Fixation | Keep fixation consistent across paraffin sections. (standard IHC practice; not target-specific) | |
| Caveat | Check antibody specificity against related AKT1/3 (UniProt) | |
| Regulation | No specific expression regulator reported (UniProt) | |
| Isoform / epitope | 2 isoforms; verify epitope coverage (UniProt) |
The catalog antibody protocol uses citrate pH 6 retrieval (datasheet: PB9043). The published IHC protocols below cover breast carcinoma, xenografts and lung sections, and basal cell carcinoma (PMC8353139; PMC9224635; PMC3271997).
| Sample | Paraffin-embedded human lung cancer tissues; fixative not specified (datasheet PB9043) |
| Fixation | Image fixative and duration unreported (datasheet PB9043); verify before use. |
| Sectioning | 4–5 µm sections on charged slides (standard) |
| Deparaffinisation | Xylene, graded ethanol series to water (standard) |
| Antigen retrieval | Heat retrieval: Citrate pH 6, 20 min (datasheet PB9043) |
| Peroxidase block | 3% H2O2, 10 min, room temperature (standard) |
| Blocking | 10% goat serum (datasheet PB9043) |
| Primary antibody | Rabbit anti-AKT2, 0.5-1μg/ml (datasheet PB9043) |
| Primary incubation | Overnight at 4 °C (datasheet PB9043) |
| Detection | Streptavidin-biotin complex (SABC), DAB chromogen (datasheet PB9043) |
| Counterstain | Hematoxylin, blue, dehydrate and mount (standard) |
| Expected result | AKT2-positive staining in glandular cells of adrenal gland (HPA tissue IHC: High). HPA tissue profile: General cytoplasmic expression. No signal in the no-primary control. |
AKT2 is widely expressed and can localize to cytoplasm, nucleus, cell membrane, and early endosomes; it has no transmembrane segment (UniProt P31751). In paraffin-section IHC, expect mainly cytoplasmic staining in the cell types identified by HPA, including glandular cells in breast and adrenal gland (HPA: High). Treat tissue-level predictions cautiously: HPA describes general cytoplasmic expression but rates its tissue IHC profile Uncertain because antibody staining and RNA data have medium consistency (HPA: Uncertain).
| Cytoplasmic staining in breast or adrenal gland glandular cells (HPA: High). | This fits HPA's general cytoplasmic IHC profile (HPA: General cytoplasmic expression). Compare the stained cells with adjacent unstained structures, a negative control, and the same run's positive control before scoring intensity (general IHC practice). HPA's Uncertain reliability limits how strongly one section can confirm specificity (HPA: Uncertain). |
| Predominantly extracellular, stromal, or luminal deposit with little intracellular signal. | This is outside the recorded AKT2 compartments: cytoplasm, nucleus, membrane, and early endosome (UniProt P31751). Check whether the deposit follows tissue edges, folds, or reagent pooling, which can create artifactual chromogen patterns (general IHC practice). Nuclear or membrane signal alone needs context: both are documented AKT2 locations (UniProt P31751). |
| Strong cardiomyocyte staining in heart muscle (HPA: Not detected). | Question antibody specificity or endogenous detection activity before calling this AKT2 positive (HPA: Not detected; general IHC practice). HPA's tissue IHC assessment is Uncertain, so this discrepancy warrants controls and replication rather than an automatic biological conclusion (HPA: Uncertain). Compare cell identity and staining distribution with the positive-control section (general IHC practice). |
| Diffuse brown haze across several cell types and extracellular spaces. | A widespread haze does not reproduce HPA's cell-associated, generally cytoplasmic profile (HPA: General cytoplasmic expression). In chromogenic IHC, incomplete blocking, excess antibody or detection reagent, and residual endogenous enzyme activity can raise background (general IHC practice). Judge cell-specific signal only after assessing a no-primary control (general IHC practice). |
| No signal in breast or adrenal gland glandular cells (HPA: High). | This conflicts with HPA's observed high staining in those cells, but the profile is rated Uncertain (HPA: High; HPA: Uncertain). First check tissue preservation, section processing, control staining, and the antibody's validated IHC-P conditions (general IHC practice). A blank positive-control section cannot distinguish absent AKT2 from an unsuccessful staining run (general IHC practice). |
| Compartment and topology | AKT2 has no signal peptide or transmembrane segment, while cytoplasm, nucleus, membrane recruitment, and early endosomes are documented (UniProt P31751). A membrane rim can therefore be plausible in context; an extracellular-only pattern lacks support (UniProt P31751). |
| Tissue selection and evidence strength | Breast and adrenal gland glandular cells are HPA-high; heart cardiomyocytes are not detected (HPA: High; HPA: Not detected). Use these as comparison tissues while retaining HPA's Uncertain tissue-IHC rating (HPA: Uncertain). |
| Antibody validation | Both listed HPA IHC antibodies have an Uncertain IHC assessment (HPA: CAB004204; HPA: CAB080295). Interpret an isolated unusual pattern alongside cellular morphology and run controls; HPA does not establish target-specific fixation sensitivity (HPA: Uncertain). |
| Isoforms and epitope coverage | UniProt lists two AKT2 isoforms (UniProt P31751). Without the antibody's epitope or isoform-reactivity information, their separate contributions to IHC staining cannot be assigned (UniProt P31751; general IHC practice). |
| Post-translational modification | UniProt annotates phosphorylation and glycosylation sites on AKT2 (UniProt P31751). These annotations alone cannot predict whether this antibody's staining changes with modification; that requires epitope-specific evidence (general IHC practice). |
| IF/ICC Q&A: where should signal appear? | HPA reports enhanced cytosol and vesicle localization, with supported nucleoplasm staining in ICC-IF (HPA: subcellular). These IF observations inform localization, while paraffin-section IHC interpretation follows the tissue IHC profile (HPA: General cytoplasmic expression). |
| Situation | Likely cause | Next action |
|---|---|---|
| Expected glandular cells are blank in a paraffin section (HPA: High). | The staining run may have failed, or the section may be unsuitable (general IHC practice); HPA's Uncertain profile also limits prediction for an individual specimen (HPA: Uncertain). | Check a same-run positive control, section integrity, and the IHC-validated antibody's stated retrieval and detection conditions (general IHC practice). Do not infer an AKT2-specific fixation effect without evidence. |
| Many compartments show uniform brown haze. | Nonspecific binding, excess detection reagent, or residual endogenous enzyme activity can obscure cell-associated staining (general IHC practice). | Review a no-primary control, verify blocking and wash steps, and adjust antibody or detection conditions within the validated IHC workflow (general IHC practice). Reassess the cytoplasmic pattern after background is controlled (HPA: General cytoplasmic expression). |
| Heart cardiomyocytes stain strongly (HPA: Not detected). | Cross-reactivity or endogenous chromogenic activity is possible (general IHC practice); HPA's Uncertain IHC assessment prevents treating the mismatch as definitive (HPA: Uncertain). | Confirm cell identity, compare no-primary and positive controls, and repeat with an independently validated AKT2 reagent if available (general IHC practice). Record the disagreement with HPA's cardiomyocyte observation (HPA: Not detected). |
| Signal is confined to extracellular material. | That distribution does not match UniProt's intracellular and membrane-associated AKT2 locations (UniProt P31751). Tissue folds or reagent deposits can mimic localized staining (general IHC practice). | Inspect the section at lower magnification for edge and fold effects; compare adjacent cells and a no-primary control (general IHC practice). Score intracellular signal separately (UniProt P31751). |
| Nuclear or membrane staining seems to replace cytoplasmic staining. | Nuclear localization and lipid-dependent membrane recruitment are documented for AKT2 (UniProt P31751), although HPA's tissue IHC profile is generally cytoplasmic (HPA: General cytoplasmic expression). | Record the cell type and compartment, compare controls, and avoid calling a documented compartment artifactual solely because it differs from the dominant HPA tissue pattern (UniProt P31751; HPA: General cytoplasmic expression). |
| Chromogen obscures cell boundaries or nuclear counterstain. | Overdeveloped detection or an overly strong counterstain can prevent compartment scoring (general IHC practice). | Repeat with controlled development and readable counterstaining, then score cell type, subcellular distribution, and intensity separately (general IHC practice). Compare with the same-run positive and no-primary controls (general IHC practice). |
Comprehensive Human Protein Atlas IHC scoring per tissue (reliability: Uncertain — Medium consistency between antibody staining and RNA expression data.). Rows are taken directly from the HPA tissue chart — click any row's HPA link to view the source.
| Tissue | Cell type | Level | Evidence | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adrenal gland | Glandular cells | High | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
| Breast | Glandular cells | High | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
| Bronchus | Ciliated cells (cell body) | High | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
| Caudate | Glial cells | High | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
| Cerebellum | Purkinje cells | High | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
| Tissue | Cell type | Level | Evidence | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heart muscle | Cardiomyocytes | Not detected | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
Use the catalog antibody’s paraffin-section IHC conditions as a starting point, and interpret staining alongside the reported AKT2 localisation and tissue patterns (datasheet PB9043; UniProt P31751; HPA tissue IHC).
Anti-AKT2 antibodies have IHC images from paraffin-embedded human tissue and a frozen rat section (PB9043 image captions), plus IF images from human MCF7 and HeLa cells (M00725-1 and M00725-3 image captions).
PB9043 is listed for IHC and has images from paraffin-embedded human lung and intestinal cancer tissue and frozen rat brain tissue (catalog applications; PB9043 image captions); M00725-1 is listed for IF/ICC and has an MCF7 cell IF image (catalog applications; M00725-1 image caption). M00725-3 is listed for IF, with human and rat reactivity and an IF image from human HeLa cells (catalog applications/reactivity; M00725-3 image caption).
Which to pick: Choose PB9043 for paraffin-section human tissue IHC: its caption documents citrate retrieval at pH 6 for 20 minutes and primary antibody at 1 μg/ml overnight at 4 °C; the fixative is unreported (PB9043 image caption). For human cell IF/ICC, choose mouse monoclonal M00725-1 for its IF/ICC listing and MCF7 image, or mouse monoclonal M00725-3 for its IF listing and HeLa image (catalog host/applications; M00725-1 and M00725-3 image captions). For cross-species tissue IHC, PB9043 lists human, mouse and rat reactivity, with paraffin-section images for human tissue and a frozen-section image for rat tissue (catalog reactivity; PB9043 image captions).