Help Needed - Mouse Spinal Cord Dissection Techniques - (Oct/20/2006 )
Hi everyone,
I'm a doctoral student in neuroscience and need an efficient and practical technique to remove the whole live, non-perfused spinal cord in E15-E17 prenatal mice. I've tried to use techniques that have worked for me in postnatal mice such as cutting the vertebral column, "squeezing" the axial skeleton under PBS, and pushing forceps through the vertebral foramen, but to no avail! Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Chris
-Fromtl-
QUOTE (Fromtl @ Oct 20 2006, 05:54 PM)
Hi everyone,
I'm a doctoral student in neuroscience and need an efficient and practical technique to remove the whole live, non-perfused spinal cord in E15-E17 prenatal mice. I've tried to use techniques that have worked for me in postnatal mice such as cutting the vertebral column, "squeezing" the axial skeleton under PBS, and pushing forceps through the vertebral foramen, but to no avail! Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Chris
I'm a doctoral student in neuroscience and need an efficient and practical technique to remove the whole live, non-perfused spinal cord in E15-E17 prenatal mice. I've tried to use techniques that have worked for me in postnatal mice such as cutting the vertebral column, "squeezing" the axial skeleton under PBS, and pushing forceps through the vertebral foramen, but to no avail! Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Chris
I'm not sure if this is fessible on prenatal mice because I've only performed the procedure on mature rats, but maybe you could try cutting the vertebral column at both ends, filling a syringe with PBS and inserting it into the foramen (making sure you have a tight fit) then squirting the PBS into the column. If there is enough pressure the spinal column will eject from the other end.
-biochick-