What is "immunostaining"

n. 1 (context uncountable immunology English) Any of several staining techniques that are used to detect specific proteins. 2 (context countable immunology English) An application of any such technique.

Immunostaining is a general term in biochemistry that applies to any use of an antibody-based method to detect a specific protein in a sample. The term immunostaining was originally used to refer to the immunohistochemical staining of tissue sections, as first described by Albert Coons in 1941. Now however, immunostaining encompasses a broad range of techniques used in histology, cell biology, and molecular biology that utilise antibody-based staining methods.