Molded Rodent Brian Cavities in Stereotaxic Alignment

描述（由申请人提供）：脑部疾病通常是长期和致残的，其护理费用昂贵。2000年编制的一份报告显示，10种最常见的脑部疾病每年新增110万例。1 600多万人接受这些疾病的持续护理（www.caregiver.org）。神经科学学会拥有36，000名成员科学家，旨在通过基础研究促进健康和患病大脑的知识，以阐明预防或治疗大脑疾病的新方法。MyNeuroLab.com的商业目标是通过创新他们的专业工具来支持神经科学研究人员。在动物神经科学研究项目之后，用于组织学的脑切片传统上是一个连续的过程，一次一个脑切片，一次一个切片并安装。相比之下，染色是一个平行的过程，所有切片一次完成，这确保了相同的处理，提高了速度，便于分析。我们提出了一种并行处理的方法来安装和切片啮齿动物的大脑，无论是新鲜的或灌注组织。我们将开发商业化的模具，将OCT或明胶浇铸成一个有空腔的块，以容纳正在研究的大脑物种。用我们的技术，模具可以容纳新鲜或灌注的大脑。每一个待研究的物种都需要不同的模具，首先是成年大鼠和成年小鼠的大脑。这些模具可以以两种方式中的任一种使用。1)模制块可以一次用于一个大脑，但将确保一致的立体定向和对齐。2)可以将模制块分组在一起，如所期望的那样多，并且将所得的大的脑块（其将全部包埋在相同的立体定位平面中并且在相同的深度处）用大规格低温恒温器切片，每次通过中切片多达25个小鼠脑。刀片每次通过时所取切片的“页面”将安装在大幅面（2”x 3”幻灯片）上。本文提出的研究是构建起始模具，组装这种可切片的包埋脑块，将其切片，并通过评估每个冠状切片的侧向对称性的偏离程度以及每个脑切片的截面的微米变化程度来确定取向和偏移的有效性程度。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Diseases of the brain are typically long term and disabling, and their care is expensive. A report compiled in 2000 shows 1.1 million new cases annually of the 10 most common brain diseases. More than 16 million persons receive ongoing care for these diseases (www.caregiver.org). The Society for Neuroscience, with 36,000 member scientists, seeks to advance knowledge of the healthy and diseased brain through basic research, toward elucidating new means of prevention or treatment of brain disease. The business objective of MyNeuroLab.com is to support neuroscience researchers through innovation in their specialized tools. Sectioning brain for histology following an animal neuroscience research project has traditionally been a sequential process, one brain sectioned at a time, and one slice taken and mounted at a time. In contrast, staining is a parallel process, all sections done at once, which ensures identical treatment, increases speed, and facilitates analysis. We propose a parallel processing approach to mounting and sectioning rodent brains, either as fresh or perfused tissue. We will develop molds, to be offered commercially, in which to cast OCT or gelatin into a block with a cavity to accommodate the species of brain under study. With our technology, the molds can accommodate either fresh or perfused brains. Different molds will be needed for each species to be studied, initially adult rat and adult mouse brains. These molds can be used in either of two ways. 1) The molded blocks can be used with one brain at a time, but will ensure consistent stereotaxic orientation and alignment. 2) The molded blocks can be grouped together, as many as desired, and the resulting large block of brains, which will be embedded all in the same stereotaxic plane and at the same depth, will be sectioned with a large format cryostat sectioning up to 25 mouse brains in each pass. The "pages" of sections taken with each pass of the blade will be mounted on large format (2" x 3" slides). The research proposed herein is to construct the starting molds, assemble such a sectionable block of embedded brains, section it, and determine the degree of validity of orientation and offset by assessing the degree of deviation from lateral symmetry of each coronal section, and the degree of variation in microns of the plane of section of each brain slice.