Felthauser A M, Claiborne B J
Division of Life Sciences, University of Texas, San Antonio 78285.
Neurosci Lett. 1990 Oct 16;118(2):249-51. doi: 10.1016/0304-3940(90)90639-q.
Although cortical neurons in fixed tissue can be labeled by intracellular dye injection, it is not yet known whether the dye diffuses to the most distal tips of the dendrites, or whether all dendritic branches of a neuron are labeled. In this study we addressed these questions by injecting granule neurons from the rat dentate gyrus in fixed, 400-microns-thick hippocampal slices with the fluorescent dye Lucifer yellow and comparing the resultant dendritic morphologies with those of neurons labeled in slices maintained in vitro. Results indicated that each dendritic branch was filled to its most distal tip and that the average number of branches per neuron in the fixed tissue was the same as that seen after in vitro labeling. Thus, intracellular labeling of neurons in fixed tissue permits quantitative studies of dendritic tree structure.
尽管固定组织中的皮质神经元可以通过细胞内染料注射进行标记，但目前尚不清楚染料是否会扩散到树突的最远端，也不清楚神经元的所有树突分支是否都被标记。在本研究中，我们通过向固定的、400微米厚的海马切片中的大鼠齿状回颗粒神经元注射荧光染料路西法黄，并将由此产生的树突形态与体外培养切片中标记的神经元的树突形态进行比较，来解决这些问题。结果表明，每个树突分支都被填充到其最远端，并且固定组织中每个神经元的平均分支数与体外标记后观察到的相同。因此，固定组织中神经元的细胞内标记允许对树突结构进行定量研究。
