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- Table of Contents
Plan C1QBP chromogenic IHC in paraffin sections using the granular cytoplasmic tissue pattern as a reference (HPA tissue IHC). A catalog antibody example uses a 1:50 primary dilution (datasheet M01439); germinal center cells stain strongly, while cholangiocytes are not detected (HPA tissue IHC).
Expected localisation, validated protocols, controls and antibodies — the at-a-glance facts below, then the full design guide.
| Expected localisation | Granular cytoplasmic tissue staining (HPA tissue IHC) | |
| Staining pattern | Granular cytoplasm; strong in germinal center cells (HPA tissue IHC) | |
| Antigen retrieval | EDTA pH 8.0 HIER, heat-mediated (datasheet M01439) | |
| Positive control | Appendix+4 more · see all | |
| Negative control | Liver+1 more · see all |
| Fixation | Keep formalin fixation consistent across paraffin sections (standard IHC practice; not target-specific) | |
| Caveat | A secreted variant may complicate tissue staining patterns (HPA tissue IHC) | |
| Regulation | Activated lymphocytes secrete C1QBP (UniProt) | |
| Isoform / epitope | No annotated isoforms; mature chain spans 74–282 and has no transmembrane segment, so there is no defined extracellular versus cytoplasmic epitope split (UniProt) |
The catalog antibody has a separate IHC-P protocol (datasheet M01439). The published options below cover rat brain free-floating sections (PMC6418184) and mouse paraffin-embedded lung sections (PMC13069790).
| Sample | Paraffin-embedded human breast cancer tissue; fixative not specified (datasheet M01439) |
| Fixation | Image fixative and duration unreported (datasheet M01439); verify before use. |
| Sectioning | 4–5 µm sections on charged slides (standard) |
| Deparaffinisation | Xylene, graded ethanol series to water (standard) |
| Antigen retrieval | Heat retrieval: EDTA pH 8.0 (datasheet M01439); 20 min, 95–100 °C (standard) |
| Peroxidase block | 3% H2O2, 10 min, room temperature (standard) |
| Blocking | 10% goat serum (datasheet M01439) |
| Primary antibody | Rabbit monoclonal (clone 17C69) anti-C1QBP, 1:50-1:200 (datasheet M01439) |
| Primary incubation | Overnight at 4 °C (datasheet M01439) |
| Detection | HRP-conjugated secondary, DAB chromogen (datasheet M01439) |
| Counterstain | Hematoxylin, blue, dehydrate and mount (standard) |
| Expected result | C1QBP-positive staining in germinal center cells of appendix (HPA tissue IHC: High). HPA tissue profile: Ubiquitous cytoplasmic expression with a granular pattern. No signal in the no-primary control. |
In paraffin-section IHC, expect widespread granular cytoplasmic C1QBP staining, including strong staining in selected germinal center and glandular cells (HPA: supported tissue IHC; high in appendix germinal center and breast glandular cells). C1QBP is predominantly mitochondrial but also has reported surface, nuclear, cytoplasmic and secreted locations; it has no transmembrane segment (UniProt Q07021 localization and topology).
| Granular cytoplasmic signal is strong in appendix or lymph-node germinal center cells; nearby cells vary in intensity. | This fits the reported tissue pattern: C1QBP expression is widespread, with high staining in these germinal center cells (HPA: tissue IHC). Score the named cells rather than treating every cell in the section as an equally strong positive control. |
| Strong, uniform nuclear-only staining replaces the expected granular cytoplasmic pattern across the section. | Treat this as a possible staining artefact and check controls and morphology (HPA: granular cytoplasmic tissue pattern; standard IHC practice). Nuclear and nucleolar localization is reported, so an isolated nuclear signal cannot be declared false solely from its compartment (UniProt Q07021 localization). |
| The strongest chromogen appears in HPA-negative cholangiocytes or skeletal myocytes, while expected positive cells are weak. | Question antibody specificity or endogenous detection activity, especially if staining ignores cell boundaries (HPA: C1QBP not detected in those named cell types; standard IHC practice). These observations concern specific cells, not the entire liver or skeletal-muscle section. |
| Color spreads diffusely through stroma, extracellular space or most cells without a discernible granular pattern. | Interpret this as background until a no-primary control and detection controls are clean (standard IHC practice). Secreted C1QBP is reported, but secretion alone does not validate diffuse chromogen in a paraffin section (UniProt Q07021 localization). |
| No staining is visible in appendix germinal center cells or breast glandular cells. | A failed positive control is more likely than a meaningful negative result in the test section; review staining and tissue preservation before scoring it (HPA: high staining in those cells; standard IHC practice). HPA support does not guarantee signal in every specimen. |
| Tissue and cell selection | Appendix and lymph-node germinal center cells, breast glandular cells, intestinal endocrine cells and ovarian follicle cells are reported high; cholangiocytes and skeletal myocytes are not detected (HPA: tissue IHC). Compare the annotated cell population, not whole-organ color. |
| Compartment and assay | Paraffin IHC is described as granular cytoplasmic (HPA: tissue IHC), while ICC-IF shows mainly plasma membrane and additional mitochondrial localization (HPA: supported subcellular ICC-IF). UniProt describes predominantly mitochondrial localization plus other compartments (UniProt Q07021 localization). Interpret each assay in its own context. |
| Processing and secreted protein | The annotated mature chain spans residues 74–282, and a secreted form is reported (UniProt Q07021 processing and localization). The payload gives no antibody epitope or tissue-specific shedding result, so neither processing nor secretion predicts a particular chromogen pattern. |
| Antibody evidence | The listed antibody HPA026483 has Supported IHC and ICC status (HPA: antibody validation). The tissue profile is also Supported through consistency with RNA data, with a secretion caveat (HPA: tissue-IHC reliability). These labels support interpretation but do not establish performance for every staining condition. |
| IF/ICC Q: Should membrane signal be accepted? | Yes, when the IF/ICC image and controls support it: HPA reports a supported plasma-membrane main location and additional mitochondrial location (HPA: subcellular ICC-IF). Use the separate IF/ICC guide for that assay; this paraffin-IHC section makes no IF protocol recommendation. |
| Fixation and retrieval evidence | Target-specific fixation sensitivity and a retrieval condition are unreported in the supplied UniProt and HPA records. Retrieval optimization is a general paraffin-IHC workflow decision (standard IHC practice); no C1QBP-specific gain or loss can be predicted from these sources. |
| Situation | Likely cause | Next action |
|---|---|---|
| Known HPA-high cells are unstained. | The staining run, antigen retrieval or detection may have failed; the observation alone does not identify which step (HPA: high in the named positive cells; standard IHC practice). | Confirm tissue morphology and a working positive control, then review retrieval, antibody incubation and detection in sequence (standard IHC practice). Do not score other sections negative until the control works. |
| Chromogen is widespread and featureless. | Nonspecific binding or detection background may obscure the reported granular cytoplasmic pattern (HPA: tissue IHC; standard IHC practice). | Compare a no-primary control; review blocking, washes, primary-antibody concentration and detection exposure (standard IHC practice). Retain a result only if cell boundaries and the expected granular pattern remain interpretable. |
| Color appears in the no-primary control. | Endogenous detection activity or reagent background can produce signal without the primary antibody (standard chromogenic IHC practice). | Address the detection system's endogenous activity and repeat the control alongside the test slide (standard chromogenic IHC practice). Do not assign control-positive color to C1QBP. |
| Cholangiocytes or skeletal myocytes stain strongly. | Those named populations are not detected in the HPA tissue profile; cross-reactivity or background is plausible, although specimen variation cannot be resolved from this observation alone (HPA: tissue IHC; standard IHC practice). | Check cell identity, no-primary signal and staining in an HPA-high cell population before interpreting the unexpected signal (HPA: tissue IHC; standard IHC practice). |
| Nuclear-only staining dominates a paraffin section. | It differs from the HPA granular cytoplasmic tissue pattern, though nuclear and nucleolar C1QBP are reported in other contexts (HPA: tissue IHC; UniProt Q07021 localization). | Review morphology and controls, then compare a known positive tissue stained in the same run (standard IHC practice). Document a reproducible nuclear signal separately from the expected tissue-IHC pattern. |
| Membrane signal in IF/ICC seems inconsistent with cytoplasmic IHC. | The reported assay patterns differ: HPA tissue IHC is granular cytoplasmic, while HPA ICC-IF mainly localizes C1QBP to the plasma membrane (HPA: tissue IHC and supported subcellular ICC-IF). | Judge each image against its assay-specific HPA pattern and its controls; do not transfer the IF/ICC membrane expectation into a paraffin-IHC scoring rule (HPA: tissue IHC and subcellular ICC-IF; standard interpretation practice). |
Comprehensive Human Protein Atlas IHC scoring per tissue (reliability: Supported — High consistency between antibody staining and RNA expression data. At least one protein variant secreted, tissue location of RNA and protein might differ and correlation is complex.). 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appendix | Germinal center cells | High | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
| Breast | Glandular cells | High | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
| Colon | Endocrine cells | High | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
| Lymph node | Germinal center cells | High | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
| Ovary | Follicle cells | High | Protein (IHC) | HPA → |
Use the catalog antibody’s paraffin-section workflow as the starting point, then assess staining against C1QBP’s documented distribution and compartment patterns.
Three anti-C1QBP antibodies have paraffin-section IHC images from human, mouse and rat tissues; PB9921 also has an IF/ICC cell image (catalog image captions).
M01439 has IHC images from human breast and pancreas cancer sections, mouse midbrain and rat midbrain (M01439 image captions); M01439-1 has images from human breast and pancreas cancer sections and rat cerebellum (M01439-1 image captions). PB9921 has IHC images from human tonsil, mouse spleen and rat spleen, plus an IF/ICC image from U20S cells (PB9921 image captions).
Which to pick: For paraffin-section IHC, choose M01439 or M01439-1 if you want a rabbit monoclonal, with each shown using EDTA retrieval at pH 8.0 and 1:50 primary dilution in its own IHC image; the fixative is unreported (M01439 and M01439-1 catalog entries and image captions). Choose PB9921 for IF/ICC because that application and a cell image are documented, with 2 μg/mL primary dilution in the IF caption (PB9921 catalog entry and IF image caption). For cross-species paraffin-section IHC, M01439 and PB9921 each have human, mouse and rat tissue images; M01439-1 lists reactivity with all three species but has no mouse IHC image in this payload (catalog reactivity lists and image captions).