Part 1: Pre-processing of tissue
Part 2: Stereotaxic blocking
Part 3: Removing the brain from the skull
Part 4: Measurements
Part 5: Finish blocking the brain.
Part 6: Representative Results
There are a number of gross morphological measurements that can be made once the brain has been removed from the skull. These include A/P length, weight, and specific density (Table 1). We generally block the brain into 6-7 blocks measuring 1cm (Figure 1). Each piece is then photographed (Figure 2) and can be further dissected depending on research needs or prepared for freezing in graded sucrose solutions.
Subject |
A/P Length (mm) |
Weight (grams) |
Water Displacement (ml) |
Specific Density (g/ml) |
O2303-2-1-1 | 64.3 | 28.1 | 24 | 1.171 |
O5180-1 | 71.3 | 38.7 | 34 | 1.138 |
O2708-3-1 | 62.8 | 28.7 | 26 | 1.104 |
O9184-4-2 | 65.3 | 29.5 | 24 | 1.229 |
N459-1-14-2 | 68.2 | 31.6 | 26 | 1.215 |
AVERAGE | 66.38 | 31.32 | 26.8 | 1.171 |
STD DEV | 3.38 | 4.33 | 4.17 | 0.052 |
Table 1. Gross Morphological Measurements of the Right Hemisphere of 5 Month Old Vervets
Figure 1. Schematics for the coronal planes used for blocking the brain. This is an example of an externalized adult vervet brain. Example of the blocking procedure. The vertical lines here are spaced at 1cm, typically producing 7 coronal blocks from each hemisphere.
Figure 2. Blocks of brain tissue in stereotaxic space.Each block will yield approximately 200 sections taken at 50µm. With this sampling scheme over 1200 sections through the cortex will be taken and an additional 400-500 from the cerebellum when sliced in the coronal plane.
Material Name | Type | Company | Catalogue Number | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|
Scalpel | Fine Science Tools | 10003-12 | ||
Scalpel blades | Fine Science Tools | 10011-00 | ||
Scissors | Fine Science Tools | 14090-11 | Any surgical scissors are sufficient | |
Rongeurs | Fine Science Tools | 16121-14 | ||
Forceps | Fine Science Tools | 11027-12 | ||
Filter paper | Fisher | 09-924-150 | ||
Stereotaxic Frame | Kopf Instruments | |||
Tissue slicing blade | Thomas |