This video demonstrates an assay for the whole-mount staining of murine kidneys using a tissue-clearing method called CUBIC (clear, unobstructed brain/body imaging cocktails and computational analysis) and immunofluorescent staining. The kidney is subjected to tissue clearing, wherein the kidney is delipidated, decolorized, and treated with a refractive index matching solution to make the tissue transparent for optimum three-dimensional imaging. The tissue is stained with fluorescently labeled antibodies to reveal sympathetic nerves and arteries in the tissue under a light-sheet microscope.
Protocol
All procedures involving animal models have been reviewed by the local institutional animal care committee and the JoVE veterinary review board. 1. Animal preparation and kidney fixation Perform perfusion fixation following the steps below. Anesthetize the mouse by inhalation of isoflurane (3%, 2.0 L/min) and intraperitoneal administration of medetomidine hydrochloride (0.3 mg/kg), butorphanol tartrate (5 mg/kg), and midazolam (4 mg/kg) (see Tab…
Representative Results
Figure 1: Tissue clearing and whole-mount immunofluorescent staining. Tissue clearing by CUBIC is a two-step process: delipidation (CUBIC-L) and refractive index (RI) matching (CUBIC-R+). Whole-mount staining is performed after the delipidation process. Scale bar = 10 mm. The image is reproduced from Hasegawa et al. <img alt="Figure 2" …