Application of monoclonal antibodies in morphological, structural and functional studies in electron microscopy

The massive advances in our understanding of the structure of cells and tissues in the last decades have depended on the increased resolution achieved with the electron microscopy. Electron microscopy is now a standard technique with wide applications in all branches of science and technology, and every year several papers are available describing new and sophisticated techniques that allow to obtain direct evidence for understand by electron micrographs of cells, subcellular particulates or macromolecules. In particular, the request of new immunocytochemical methods is focused to delucidate many problems in biological and medical sciences. This paper delineates the role of different immunocytochemical techniques used at ultrastructural level and focalizes the practical and theoretical interrelations between these methodologies.