Antibodies for Immunohistochemistry

Abstract

The first use of the term Antikörper (the German word for antibody) occurred in a text by Paul Ehrlich (Fig. 1.1) in the conclusion of his article “Experimental Studies on Immunity,” published in October 1891. Paul Ehrlich was born in 1854 in Strehlen (the German Province of Silesia, now in Poland). As a schoolboy and student of medicine he was interested in staining microscopic tissue substances. In his dissertation at the University of Leipzig, he picked up the topic again (“Contributions to the Theory and Practice of Histological Staining,” Beiträge zur Theorie und Praxis der histologischen Färbung) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ehrlich). In 1903, Paul Ehrlich published the ever first comprehensive textbook describing histological and histochemical staining techniques (“Encyclopedia of Microscopical Technique,” Enzyklopädie der Mikroskopischen Technik). His first immunological studies were begun in 1890 when he was an assistant at the Institute for Infectious Diseases under Robert Koch. In 1897, Paul Ehrlich proposed his theory for antibody and antigen interaction, when he hypothesized that receptors on the surface of cells could bind specifically to toxins — in a “lock-and-key interaction” — and that this binding reaction was the trigger for the production of antibodies. He shared the 1908 Nobel Prize with Mechnikoff for their studies on immunity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibody).