Effect of Vectashield-induced fluorescence quenching on conventional and super-resolution microscopy

Finding the right combination of a fluorescent dye and a mounting medium is crucial for optimal microscopy of fixed samples. It was recently shown that Vectashield, one of the most commonly used mounting media for conventional microscopy, can also be applied to super-resolution direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM). dSTORM utilizes conventional dyes and starts with samples in a fluorescent “ON” state. This helps in identifying structures of interest. Subsequently, labelled samples are induced into blinking, which is necessary for determining the position of single molecules and reconstruction of super-resolution images. This is only possible with certain fluorescent dyes and imaging buffers. One of the most widely used dyes for dSTORM, Alexa Fluor 647 (AF647), blinks in Vectashield. However, after preparing immunocytochemical samples in Vectashield, we noticed that the fluorescence intensity of AF647 is quenched. This is particularly evident for dimmer immunostainings, such as stainings of some components of neuronal cytoskeleton and axonal initial segment. Because structures of interest cannot be identified in quenched samples, loss of fluorescence intensity hinders imaging of AF647 in Vectashield. This has consequences for both conventional and dSTORM imaging. To overcome this, we provide: 1) a quantitative analysis of AF647 intensity in different imaging media, 2) a quantitative analysis of the suitability of Vectashield for dSTORM imaging of high and low-abundance AF647-labelled targets. Furthermore, for the first time, we quantitatively analyse the performance of Alexa Fluor Plus 647, a new variant of AF647-conjugated antibody, in dSTORM imaging.