Molded Rodent Brian Cavities in Stereotaxic Alignment

描述(申请人提供)：脑部疾病通常是长期的和致残的，他们的护理费用很高。2000年汇编的一份报告显示，10种最常见的脑部疾病每年新增110万例。1600多万人正在接受这些疾病的护理(www.care giver.org)。拥有3.6万名成员科学家的神经科学学会寻求通过基础研究来促进对健康和疾病大脑的了解，以阐明预防或治疗大脑疾病的新方法。MyNeuroLab.com的业务目标是通过专业工具的创新为神经科学研究人员提供支持。在动物神经科学研究项目之后对大脑进行切片以进行组织学研究，传统上是一个连续的过程，一次一个大脑切片，一次一个切片并安装。相比之下，染色是一个并行的过程，所有切片一次完成，这确保了相同的处理，提高了速度，并便于分析。我们提出了一种并行处理方法来安装和切片啮齿类动物的大脑，无论是新鲜的还是灌流的组织。我们将开发商业上提供的模具，在其中将OCT或明胶浇铸成带有空腔的块，以容纳所研究的大脑物种。有了我们的技术，模具既可以容纳新鲜的大脑，也可以容纳灌流的大脑。要研究的每个物种都需要不同的霉菌，首先是成年大鼠和成年小鼠的大脑。这些模具可用于两种方式中的任何一种。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)模制的块可以按需要组合在一起，所产生的大块大脑将全部嵌入相同的立体定位平面和相同的深度，将使用大尺寸冷冻器进行切片，每次切片最多可切开25个小鼠大脑。刀片的每一遍所拍摄的“页面”将被安装在大幅面(2“x 3”幻灯片)上。本文提出的研究是构建起始模型，组装这样一个可分割的嵌入脑块，对其进行切片，并通过评估每个冠状切片的侧向对称偏离程度和每个脑片切片平面的微米变化程度来确定定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.