Mouse Corpus Callosum
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Title: Mouse Corpus Callosum
Description: The corpus callosum of a mouse brain exposed to mild traumatic brain injury. Endogenous expression of yellow fluorescent protein is used to visualize the characteristic 'bead-on-a-string' pattern of axonal swellings caused by the brain injury. Scale bar 50 µm.
An eight week old male C57bl/6 mouse was exposed to mild traumatic brain injury and then transcardially perfused with heparinized saline followed by 4% paraformaldehyde 24 hours after the injury. The brain was vibratome sectioned at 100 µm and mounted to allow visualization of endogenous yellow fluorescent protein.
Brain injury can induce axonal swellings which increase in size and ultimately cause the axon to disconnect. The appearance of isolated swellings is believed to be caused by interruption of protein transport along the axon. The reason for swellings to appear in a ‘bead-on-a-string’ pattern is not known and is an area of active research.
Anders Hånell, Staff, Anatomy and Neurobiology
The images were acquired using a Zeiss LSM710 system with a 40x objective. The image was acquired as a 33 slice confocal z-stack and consists of three image tiles digitally stitched together and is presented as a maximum intensity projection. The amount of fluorescent protein differs between axonal compartments which makes it difficult to capture an image without under- or over-exposing some areas. This problem was solved by deliberately under-exposing low intensity regions and then visualize them by adjusting the gamma-value post acquisition. Except for the adjusted gamma-value the image is unaltered.
An eight week old male C57bl/6 mouse was exposed to mild traumatic brain injury and then transcardially perfused with heparinized saline followed by 4% paraformaldehyde 24 hours after the injury. The brain was vibratome sectioned at 100 µm and mounted to allow visualization of endogenous yellow fluorescent protein.
Brain injury can induce axonal swellings which increase in size and ultimately cause the axon to disconnect. The appearance of isolated swellings is believed to be caused by interruption of protein transport along the axon. The reason for swellings to appear in a ‘bead-on-a-string’ pattern is not known and is an area of active research.
Anders Hånell, Staff, Anatomy and Neurobiology
The images were acquired using a Zeiss LSM710 system with a 40x objective. The image was acquired as a 33 slice confocal z-stack and consists of three image tiles digitally stitched together and is presented as a maximum intensity projection. The amount of fluorescent protein differs between axonal compartments which makes it difficult to capture an image without under- or over-exposing some areas. This problem was solved by deliberately under-exposing low intensity regions and then visualize them by adjusting the gamma-value post acquisition. Except for the adjusted gamma-value the image is unaltered.
Identifier: ttlg-06
Citation: “Mouse Corpus Callosum,” VCU Libraries Gallery, accessed May 4, 2024, https://gallery.library.vcu.edu/items/show/2733.