General Research Topics > Neuroscience

LOCATE rat brain structures Histology/Confocal..counter stain?

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MBoudreault:
Hello everyone and thanks for the input ahead of time.

We are trying to find the easiest way to locate rat brain structures under the confocal microscope. After the staining procedure the brain slices, even with phase contrast tweeks, are sometimes hard to find with precision due to fading. Is there a way to use a secondary stain to make the contrast better on the brain slices without effecting the antibody florescence under the laser? I have read about golgi-cox method however it is to invasive for florescence. hematoxylin staining was another I have read about but again it inhibits florescence under the laser. Is there such thing as a really light stain that can accomplish this. I envision even something that can lightly stain the top not even fully penetrate as the slices are only 50um thick. The goal is to try and assist with location.

Olympus is the scope we are using and some area's of interest are amygdala, mpoa, external capsule, etc.

Any more questions please ask I look forward to all you input!  8)

CanuckPhD:
We use a DAPI nuclear stain to localise structures in the CNS. Works quite well and it also allows us to better localise the antibody staining (example nuclear, cytoplasmic, etc).

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