Methods for preparing fluorescent and neutral red-stained whole mounts of mouse mammary glands.
Whole mount preparations of mouse mammary glands are useful for evaluating overall changes in growth and morphology, and are essential for detecting and evaluating focal or regionally-localized phenotypes that would be difficult to detect or analyze using other techniques. We present three newly developed methods for preparing whole mounts of mammary glands from genetically-engineered mice expressing fluorescent proteins, as well as using either neutral red or a variety of fluorescent dyes. Unlike traditional hematoxylin- or carmine-stained preparations, neutral red-stained and some fluorescent preparations can be used for several common downstream analyses.
Landua
John D
JD
The Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Visbal
Adriana P
AP
Lewis
Michael T
MT
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008321:Mammary Glands, Animal / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D009499:Neutral Red; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000379:methods*
D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D009499:Neutral Red