title: Intracerebral Injections and Ultrastructural Analysis of High-Pressure Frozen Brain Tissue.
abstract: Intracerebral injections are an invasive method to bypass the blood brain barrier and are widely used to study molecular and cellular mechanisms of the central nervous system. The administered substances are injected directly at the site of interest, executing their effect locally. By combining injections in the rat brain with state-of-the-art electron microscopy, subtle changes in ultrastructure of the nervous tissue can be detected prior to overt damage or disease. The protocol presented here involves stereotactic injection into the corpus callosum of Lewis rats and the cryopreparation of freshly dissected tissue for electron microscopy. The localization of the injection site in tissue sections during the sample preparation for transmission electron microscopy is explained and possible artifacts of the method are indicated. With the help of this powerful combination of injections and electron microscopy, subtle effects of the applied substances on the biology of neural cells can be identified and monitored over time. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Neuroscience, Max-Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany.|Department of Neurogenetics, Max-Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany.|Center Nanoscale Microscopy and Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CNMPB), Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Marie-Theres
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Weil
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurogenetics, Max-Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Torben
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ruhwedel
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurogenetics, Max-Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany.|Center Nanoscale Microscopy and Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CNMPB), Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Wiebke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Möbius
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Neuroscience, Max-Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany.|Institute of Neuronal Cell Biology, The Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.|German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease (DZNE), Munich, Germany.|Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Mikael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simons
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005629:Frozen Sections / Q000379:methods*; D007267:Injections; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission / Q000379:methods; D009474:Neurons / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D011312:Pressure; D051381:Rats; D016707:Tissue Fixation / Q000379:methods