Conditions for the immunohistochemical demonstration of complement factor C3 in formaldehyde-fixed and paraffin-embedded renal tissues

Paraffin sections of formaldehyde-fixed renal biopsies were labeled for complement C3 by a polyclonal rabbit antibody to human complement C3, by the peroxidase-antiperoxidase complex (PAP) and the avidin-biotin peroxidase complex (ABC) techniques, respectively. All tissues had C3 deposits according to direct immunofluorescence on fresh frozen sections. Staining for muramidase was introduced as an intrinsic control for the degree of tissue proteolysis after the necessary trypsin digestion prior to the immunoenzyme labeling. The results indicated that even minute deposits of C3 could be detected in paraffin sections by the ABC method, which was more sensitive than the PAP technique; the ABC method allowed a maximal dilution of 1:2,400 of the primary antibody as compared to 1:800 for the PAP technique.