TSWIFT, a novel method for iterative staining of embedded and mounted human brain sections

Abstract

Comprehensive characterization of protein networks in mounted brain tissue represents a major challenge in brain and neurodegenerative disease research. In this study, we develop a simple staining method, called TSWIFT, to iteratively stain pre-mounted formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) brain sections, thus enabling high-dimensional sample phenotyping. We show that TSWIFT conserves tissue architecture and allows for relabeling a single mounted FFPE sample more than 10 times, even after prolonged storage at 4 °C. Our results establish TSWIFT as an efficient method to obtain integrated high-dimensional knowledge of cellular proteomes by analyzing mounted FFPE human brain tissue.