Soochow University

Gua Sha, traditional Chinese therapeutic skin scraping, causes subcutaneous microvascular blood extravasation. We report a protocol of bioluminescence imaging of HO-1-luciferase transgenic mice to demonstrate that Gua Sha upregulates heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in multiple organs.

Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), an epithelial chloride channel, has been reported to interact with various proteins and regulate important cellular processes; among them the CFTR PDZ motif-mediated interactions have been well documented. This protocol describes methods we developed to assemble a PDZ-dependent CFTR macromolecular signaling complex in vitro.

We present a novel PET imaging approach for capturing dopamine fluctuations induced by cigarette smoking. Subjects smoke in the PET scanner. Dynamic PET images are modeled voxel-by-voxel in time by lp-ntPET, which includes a time-varying dopamine term. The results are 'movies' of dopamine fluctuations in the striatum during smoking.

The isolation of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes is a time consuming and unpredictable procedure. This study describes methods for cryopreservation and thawing of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes that allows for more efficient use of cells. The thawed NRCMs can be used for various experiments without the need for performing isolations each time.

This protocol describes a general strategy to regenerate commercial arrayed gold microelectrodes equipped for a label-free cell analyzer aimed at saving on the high running costs ofmicrochip-based assays. The regeneration process includes trypsin digestion, rinsing with ethanol and water, and a spinning step, which enables repeated usage of microchips.

Two methods are presented here to determine intestinal barrier function. An epithelial meter (volt/ohm) is used for measurements of transepithelial electrical resistance of cultured epithelia directly in tissue culture wells. In mice, the FITC-dextran gavage method is used to determine the intestinal permeability in vivo.

We describe a method to conduct single-neuron recordings with simultaneous eye tracking in humans. We demonstrate the utility of this method and illustrate how we used this approach to obtain neurons in the human medial temporal lobe that encode targets of a visual search.

Herein, a protocol to conduct the Morris water maze tests to evaluate the ability of learning and memory of Alzheimer’s Disease model mice and to assess the effect of manual acupuncture for treating them is described.

The presented protocol uses flow cytometry to quantify the number of proliferating and dead cells in cultured mouse enteroids. This method is helpful to evaluate the effects of drug treatment on organoid proliferation and survival.

This protocol describes the steps taken to induce KRAS lung tumors in mice as well as the quantification of formed tumors by ultrasound imaging. Small tumors are visualized in early timepoints as B-lines. At later timepoints, relative tumor volume measurements are achieved by the measurement tool in the ultrasound software.

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy allows selective, label-free imaging of specific chemical moieties and it has been effectively employed to image lipid molecules in vivo. Here, we provide a brief introduction to the principle of SRS microscopy and describe methods for its use in imaging lipid storage in Caenorhabditis elegans.

This protocol uses an immunofluorescence assay to detect PM_2.5-induced DNA damage in the dissected hearts of zebrafish embryos.

We have developed a method that enriches for and isolates human astrocyte populations from fresh-frozen tissue for use in downstream molecular analyses.

A mouse model of severe acute pancreatitis is described herein. The procedure presented here is very rapid, simple, and accessible, thereby potentially allowing the study of the molecular mechanisms and different therapeutic interventions in acute pancreatitis in a convenient way.

Here we present a protocol for the isolation of BMMs from SD rats, called the secondary adherence method.

The present protocol describes the isolation and culture of mesenchymal stem cells from the umbilical cord arteries, vein, and Wharton's jelly.

Here, we describe the isolation of mitochondria from mouse adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells, and then transfer the mitochondria into aged mouse oocytes to improve the quality of the oocytes.

The ankle-subtalar complex joint (ASCJ) is the core of the foot and plays a key role in balance control in daily activities. Sports injuries often lead to instability in this joint. Here, we describe a mouse model of ligament transection-induced instability of the ASCJ.

Current Techniques and Models for Assessing the Developmental Toxicity of Environmental Pollutants

The present protocol assesses the locomotor activity of Drosophila by tracking and analyzing the movement of flies in a hand-made arena using open-source software Fiji, compatible with plugins to segment pixels of each frame based on high-definition video recording to calculate parameters of speed, distance, etc.

Here we describe a two-step cell digestion protocol for preparing a single-cell suspension of mouse carotid arteries.