Serial sectioning of thick tissue with a novel vibrating blade microtome.
Vibrating blade microtomes are used extensively in biological research to section non-frozen tissue. There are a wide variety of commercial instruments available for this purpose, however, they are designed to cut thin sections primarily from a tissue block less than one centimeter in height. Herein is described a simple modification of a microscope frame that creates a vibrating blade microtome capable of producing a sequential series of sections through three centimeters of tissue. We illustrate the use of this device to identify and reconstruct a column of rat spinal motor neurons retrogradely labeled from a peripheral muscle.
Prusky
G T
GT
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. prusky@uleth.ca
McKenna
J E
JE
D000818:Animals; D001370:Axonal Transport; D002232:Carbocyanines; D004867:Equipment Design; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D005552:Forelimb / Q000294:innervation; D008867:Microtomy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation; D051381:Rats; D013048:Specimen Handling; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014732:Vibration