Solving the Challenges of Mature Brain Slicing

Difficulties of Slicing Older Animal Brains

Younger rodent brains are much softer and easier to slice because these brains are not heavily myelinated. With older rodent brains, the amount of myelination makes tissue slicing difficult. Together with labs at the Allen Institute, we have developed the Compresstome to be successful at cutting brains from mature mice and rats.

Protective Cutting Methods

Dr. Jonathan Ting of the Allen Institute for Brain Science created a website dedicated to tracking improvements in techniques for Live brain slices in aging and mature rodents.

www.BrainSliceMethods.com

Mature brain tissue is more myelinated, and generally speaking tends to get more and more challenging to slice properly as the animal ages. Revelations about the neuronal swelling effect and the method by which damage occurs during slicing led to a new technique using N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMDG). Both NMDG and choline ACSF solutions improve neuroprotection and produce healthier slices for electrophysiology. Check out the spectrum here:

Compresstome for Mature Brain Slicing

See here why Dr. Ting feels that the Compresstome from Precisionary Instruments is the best instrument for helping to reduce tissue damage and extending slice longevity. Even from a 2-year-old mouse, the Compresstome helps to create beautiful healthy brain slices, allowing neuroscientists to patch-clamp neurons from the dorsal striatum.