Home Immunology IP-FCM: Immunoprecipitation Detected by Flow Cytometry
Immunology JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

IP-FCM: Immunoprecipitation Detected by Flow Cytometry

DOI: 10.3791/2066-v
What you'll learn
  • Perform immunoprecipitation using monoclonal antibody-coupled magnetic beads
  • Detect native protein-protein interactions via flow cytometry
  • Analyze immunoprecipitated protein complexes without genetic modification
Protocol

The IP-FCM method is presented, which allows a sensitive, robust, biochemical assessment of native protein-protein interactions, without requiring genetic engineering or large sample sizes.

Difficulty
advanced
Total time
~4–6 hours per sample (including incubation steps)
Biosafety
BSL-1

Steps

1
Introduce IP-FCM method and workflow

Overview of the immunoprecipitation detected by flow cytometry (IP-FCM) technique for assessing native protein-protein interactions without genetic engineering.

▶ 00:58
2
Couple monoclonal antibody to magnetic beads

Conjugate primary monoclonal antibodies to magnetic beads to prepare immunocapture reagents for subsequent immunoprecipitation.

▶ 01:31
3
Prepare lysate and perform immunoprecipitation

Generate post-nuclear lysate from cells and incubate with antibody-coupled beads to capture target protein complexes.

▶ 04:37
4
Probe bead-captured protein with detection antibodies

Incubate immunoprecipitated beads with fluorescently-labeled secondary antibodies to detect associated proteins.

▶ 07:07
5
Acquire data by flow cytometry

Run bead-bound samples through flow cytometer to quantify fluorescent signal and identify protein-protein interactions.

▶ 09:11
6
Interpret representative flow cytometry histogram

Analyze and visualize flow cytometry output to distinguish positive IP signal from background.

▶ 11:02
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