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terminology - (Jan/18/2001 )

I have come across many protocols for and have done a lot of immunocytochemistry, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence.But these 3 terms have been used interchangeably for different reasons. I am confused!!What are the most appropriate definitions for these 3 terms?

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My understanding is that these three terms are the same technique, i.e. detecting protein expression with an antibody, but are slightly different. in immunohistochemistry, sample used is tissue section; in immunocytochemistry, cultured cells on slide are used; immunoflurosence is the technique in which flurosence is used as the detecting method, either immunohistochemistry and immunocytochemistry can be immunoflurosence depending on which detecting agent is used. Hope it makes sense.

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