Enzyme Substrates

6 Reasons to Check Your Substrate

• Sensitivity and cost per test - A sensitive substrate could allow you to achieve a better dilution on costly primary antibodies. If your staining is obscuring everything, a lighter substrate might offer better balance. 
• Endogenous Enzymes  - Struggling to block enzyme rich tissues? A different reporting enzyme and substrate could help clean up.
• Colour - Is it easy to see on your sample? A different colour to brown might be easier to see on pigmented tissue. 
• Safety - DAB is a suspected carcinogen. Although it is not known if other substrates are carcinogenic too, liquid formulations are safer to use than tablets or powders. 
• Consistency - Manufactured kits are tested against previous batches to ensure consistency and reliabiltiy.  
• Working solution shelf life - Substrates are always best made up fresh, but if you're throwing working solution away, a different formulation may help minimize wastage.

All Vector Laboratories' substrates are provided in liquid format to minimise exposure and enable run appropriate volumes to be made for bench top runs, or on an autostasiner for suitable substrates. Wait times for mixing and dissolving powders or tablets are eliminated.

Kits make up the indicated volumes of working reagent, or can be manufactured in bulk quantities if required. 

Peroxidase (HRP) Substrates

Vector Laboratories offers two lines of peroxidase substrates.

'Original' HRP substrate kits:

• Provide sensitivity greater than conventional tablet or powder substrates
• Supplied as concentrated stock solutions in convenient dropper bottles, stable for one year
• Each kit makes 300ml working solution -  aprox. 1500-3000 sections  

The ImmPACT™ HRP substrates offer the following advantages:

• 2-4 fold greater sensitivity than the original substrate kits
• Supplied with optimized diluent
• Optimized specifically for immunohistochemistry applications
• Stock solutions stable for one year, working solutions can be stable for up to 14 days at 4 ºC
• Kits make 120ml working solution (aprox. 600-1200 sections), except ImmPACT DAB EqV which has 100ml or 400ml options (aprox. 500-1000 or 2000-4000 sections) . 

Alkaline Phosphatase (AP) Substrates

These heat stable substrates are very useful in multiple labelling experiments and for tissues where blocking endogenous peroxidase is difficult or damages tissues. They also exhibit broad spectrum fluorescence. 'Original' kits make 200 ml of working solution each (1000-2000 sections) 

The ImmPACT™ Vector® Red Substrate is the most sensitive red AP substrate:

• 2-4 fold greater sensitivity than the original substrate
• Supplied with optimized diluent
• Makes 120 ml working solution (600-1200 sections). 

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