Our knowledge of increasing numbers of cell subtype and activation status markers enables more and more subtle distinctions of individual cell subpopulations with specific functions. Fluorescence-activated flow cytometry is the most common technology used routinely to analyze cell suspensions. Because flow cytometry is limited by the availability of discriminable fluorescence dyes, analyses with more than six colors are uncommon. Moreover, the location of an individual cell and its interaction with surrounding cells and matrix is lost in flow cytometry but provides additional important information. A better understanding of the phenotypic composition of tissueinfiltrating leukocytes in context with the cellular environment is essential for immunology. Besides the stages of differentiation and cellular activation, cell-cell and cellmatrix interactions are crucial factors defining the biological activity of individual cells in vitro. Immunohistology is the current approach to evaluate the presence and location of certain markers within organelles or membranes of cells in their physiological environment. But, even more than flow cytometry, immunohistology is limited by the number of distinguishable fluorescence dyes. Therefore, serial sections must be studied, but this approach no longer allows investigation of the same cells.Recently, a new technique of automated multidimensional fluorescence microscopy was published to analyze proteome topology on structurally intact single cells as well as within the complexity of a tissue (Schubert et al. 2006). This technique, called multi-epitope-ligand cartography (MELC), enables the mapping of protein networks, the localization of different cell types, and the analysis of 470140J HCXXX10.1369/0022155412470140Eckha rdt et al.MELC Analysis of Whole Murine Organs 2012© The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions. SummaryMulti-epitope-ligand cartography (MELC) is an innovative high-throughput fluorescence microscopy-based method. A tissue section is analyzed through a repeated cycling of (1)

SummaryIn the present study we examined the role of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Here, we report that TSLP knock-out (KO) mice display a delayed onset of disease and an attenuated form of EAE. This delayed onset was accompanied by a reduced number of encephalitogenic T helper type 1 (Th1) cells in the central nervous system (CNS) of TSLP KO mice. In addition, CD4

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