Browsing by Subject "TPLSM"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    In situ three-dimensional reconstruction of mouse heart sympathetic innervation by two-photon excitation fluorescence imaging
    (2014-02-25) Freeman, Kim Renee; Rubart-von der Lohe, Michael; Atkinson, Simon; Hurley, Thomas D., 1961-; Gattone II, Vincent H.
    The sympathetic nervous system strongly modulates the contractile and electrical function of the heart. The anatomical underpinnings that enable a spatially and temporally coordinated dissemination of sympathetic signals within the cardiac tissue are only incompletely characterized. In this work we took the first step of unraveling the in situ 3D microarchitecture of the cardiac sympathetic nervous system. Using a combination of two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy and computer-assisted image analyses, we reconstructed the sympathetic network in a portion of the left ventricular epicardium from adult transgenic mice expressing a fluorescent reporter protein in all peripheral sympathetic neurons. The reconstruction revealed several organizational principles of the local sympathetic tree that synergize to enable a coordinated and efficient signal transfer to the target tissue. First, synaptic boutons are aligned with high density along much of axon-cell contacts. Second, axon segments are oriented parallel to the main, i.e., longitudinal, axes of their apposed cardiomyocytes, optimizing the frequency of transmitter release sites per axon/per cardiomyocyte. Third, the local network was partitioned into branched and/or looped sub-trees which extended both radially and tangentially through the image volume. Fourth, sub-trees arrange to not much overlap, giving rise to multiple annexed innervation domains of variable complexity and configuration. The sympathetic network in the epicardial border zone of a chronic myocardial infarction was observed to undergo substantive remodeling, which included almost complete loss of fibers at depths >10 µm from the surface, spatially heterogeneous gain of axons, irregularly shaped synaptic boutons, and formation of axonal plexuses composed of nested loops of variable length. In conclusion, we provide, to the best of our knowledge, the first in situ 3D reconstruction of the local cardiac sympathetic network in normal and injured mammalian myocardium. Mapping the sympathetic network connectivity will aid in elucidating its role in sympathetic signal transmisson and processing.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A simple approach for measuring FRET in fluorescent biosensors using two-photon microscopy
    (Nature, 2016-11) Day, Richard N.; Tao, Wen; Dunn, Kenneth W.; Department of Cellular & Integrative Physiology, IU School of Medicine
    Genetically encoded fluorescent protein (FP)-based biosensor probes are useful tools for monitoring cellular events in living cells and tissues. Because these probes were developed for one-photon excitation approaches, their broad two-photon excitation (2PE) and poorly understood photobleaching characteristics have made their implementation in studies using two-photon laser-scanning microscopy (TPLSM) challenging. Here we describe a protocol that simplifies the use of Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based biosensors in TPLSM. First, the TPLSM system is evaluated and optimized using FRET standards expressed in living cells, which enables the determination of spectral bleed-through (SBT) and the confirmation of FRET measurements from the known standards. Next, we describe how to apply the approach experimentally using a modified version of the A kinase activity reporter (AKAR) protein kinase A (PKA) biosensor as an example—first in cells in culture and then in hepatocytes in the liver of living mice. The microscopic imaging can be accomplished in a day in laboratories that routinely use TPLSM.