I want to stain for inflammatory markers in the endothelium and I have some times the problem that after mounting there are some kind of lipids or tissue on top which makes patchy the microscope view and difficult to get a complete view.
There are many ways to image and based on what you have said I have some suggestions. You state that you are imaging on face so I assume you want to image the the endothelium. The protocol I use is simple and effective it can be used for epiflorescence but is better suited to confocal microscopy. While this simple method would work because of the "ribbed" intimal surface of arteries an initial perfusion fixation would improve clarity.
1. Clean Aorta of all connective tissue
2. Pin to a sylgard dish throughout the process (you can use an O ring to create a low volume chamber). Use small vannas scissors to cut open, pin out with EC layer (luminal layer) facing upward at fix in 2-4% PFA for 1-2 hours or overnight at 4 degrees
3. wash for 1 hour in blocking buffer (at least 3x wash during the hour)
4. Add primary antibody leave at 4 degrees overnight up to 48 h
5. wash 1 hour in blocking buffer then add secondary for 2 hours
6. Wash 1 hour in blocking buffer then one ws in PBS and mount onto slide EC facing upward and add coverslip - coated slides like superfrost are good for this, vecta shield or prolong are good mounting reagents. Use a weight to improve slide fixation and leave over night
If you want to image smooth muscle in the aorta I would recommend a transverse section the adventitia and the EC/thick internal elastic lamina (which has autoflorescence) of the aorta will make en face imaging of the medial layer hard even with a good confocal, pointless with epifloresence.
I have never had a problem with connective tissue or lipids doing this. Links to tow papers using this method are below.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0046735
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1476-5381.2012.02129.x/abstract
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