Biocytin pellets: an alternative technique for massive anterograde labeling of neuronal pathways in vivo and in vitro.
The present study demonstrates that biocytin suspended in pellets of either coagulated chicken plasma (plasmaclot) or gelatine, produces intense anterograde axonal and terminal labeling and dense retrograde Golgi like labeling of neurons when injected into the brain parenchyma of young adult rats. The technique worked perfectly on hippocampal pathways like the mossy fiber system, the hilodentate associational and commissural fiber systems, CA3 Schaffer collaterals, the entorhinal perforant path to fascia dentata and hippocampus, as well as frontal motor cortical efferent and afferent fiber tracts. This pellet tracer delivery technique also proved very useful when applied on hippocampal slice cultures, where small pellets of plasmaclot embedded biocytin resulted in very discrete uptake sites with dense labeling of small groups of neurons and their projections.
Sørensen
J C
JC
PharmaBiotec, Institute of Neurobiology, University of Aarhus, Denmark.
Tønder
N
N
Zimmer
J
J
D000818:Animals; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology; D046508:Culture Techniques; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006651:Histocytochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D008239:Lysine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013194:Staining and Labeling
C013411:biocytin; D008239:Lysine