I am currently attempting dissection of the mouse aorta to expose the endothelium for Oil Red O and other standard stains. I am using ophthalmological scissors to open the vessel from the outer curvature and I pin the vessel along the inner curvature to secure it.
However, I find myself slipping out and 'getting lost' in the vessel, and I cut several times as I try to find my way back in. Sometimes it seems ambiguous whether I actually entered the vessel or not. As a result, my final tissue preparations have edges that are not clean and defined. I am also struggling with pinning straight, with some orientations of the prepared aorta seeming ambiguous.
I am looking for any technical tips on how to make my cuts more defined and clean so that the final endothelial presentation looks good enough for a publishable figure. Does anyone have any advice on this?
I attach pictures of vessels I have attempted, as well as a link to a quality of preparation in a figure style that I would ideally like to replicate!
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Photographs-of-Oil-Red-O-staining-vs-autoradiographs-of-intact-mouse-aortas-top-row_fig5_265089958
Thank you so much for looking this over and for helping me out.
Hi.
I don't know, which scissors dou you use. I would recommend a Castroviejo micro scissor. They must be very sharp. If you cut the aorta after explantation it's more difficult, and you can try to fill the lumen with saline solution/medium/buffer, if it doesn't interfere with your experiments. In the case that you open the aorta before explantation, it should be easier.
I presume you use a microscope
Best regards
AO
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