WB vs Immunostaining - (Nov/16/2008 )

Dear all,

I've heard WB is a qualitative method rather than a quantitative method. How if i only want to compare the protein level between samples, can i still give conclusion simply by direct comparison?

My second enquiry is whether immunostaining also serve the same purpose to compare protein level between tissues or cells?

Lastly, if immunostaining have such a application, which one is better in the sense to compare protein level, WB or immunostaining? Which one do you prefer to perform if both condition is possible, say you can either do the immunostaining witih the cells you have, or extract the protein before the WB?

Thanks a lot!!

You can compare, but only really if they are run on the same gel and blotted onto the same membrane. Things get a little dodgy doing densitometry between gels.