Microinjections have been used for a long time for the delivery of drugs or toxins within specific brain areas and, more recently, they have been used to deliver gene or cell therapy products. Unfortunately, current microinjection techniques use steel or glass needles that are suboptimal for multiple reasons: in particular, steel needles may cause tissue damage, and glass needles may bend when lowered deeply into the brain, missing the target region. In this article, we describe a protocol to prepare and use quartz needles that combine a number of useful features. These needles do not produce detectable tissue damage and, being very rigid, ensure reliable delivery in the desired brain region even when using deep coordinates. Moreover, it is possible to personalize the design of the needle by making multiple holes of the desired diameter. Multiple holes facilitate the injection of large amounts of solution within a larger area, whereas large holes facilitate the injection of cells. In addition, these quartz needles can be cleaned and re-used, such that the procedure becomes cost-effective.
Data di pubblicazione: | 2018 | |
Titolo: | Personalized needles for microinjections in the rodent brain | |
Autori: | Paolone, Giovanna; Falcicchia, Chiara; Verlengia, Gianluca; Barbieri, Mario; Binaschi, Anna; Paliotto, Federico; Paradiso, Beatrice; Soukupova, Marie; Zucchini, Silvia; Simonato, Michele | |
Rivista: | JOURNAL OF VISUALIZED EXPERIMENTS | |
Keywords: | Brain damage; Brain delivery; Issue 131; Laser dissector; Microinjection; Neuroscience; Quartz needle; Neuroscience (all); Chemical Engineering (all); Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (all); Immunology and Microbiology (all) | |
Abstract in inglese: | Microinjections have been used for a long time for the delivery of drugs or toxins within specific brain areas and, more recently, they have been used to deliver gene or cell therapy products. Unfortunately, current microinjection techniques use steel or glass needles that are suboptimal for multiple reasons: in particular, steel needles may cause tissue damage, and glass needles may bend when lowered deeply into the brain, missing the target region. In this article, we describe a protocol to prepare and use quartz needles that combine a number of useful features. These needles do not produce detectable tissue damage and, being very rigid, ensure reliable delivery in the desired brain region even when using deep coordinates. Moreover, it is possible to personalize the design of the needle by making multiple holes of the desired diameter. Multiple holes facilitate the injection of large amounts of solution within a larger area, whereas large holes facilitate the injection of cells. In addition, these quartz needles can be cleaned and re-used, such that the procedure becomes cost-effective. | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | 10.3791/55751 | |
Handle: | http://hdl.handle.net/11392/2382332 | |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 03.1 Articolo su rivista |
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