Temple University School of Medicine

We describe procedures for repeated administration of inhibitors of muscarinic signaling to the levator auris longus (LAL) muscle of young adult mice and for subsequent immunostaining of its neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) in wholemounts. The LAL muscle has unique advantages for revealing in vivo pharmacological effects on NMJs.

An in vivo imaging protocol to monitor primary sensory axons following dorsal root crush is described. The procedures utilize wide-field fluorescence microscopy and thy1-YFP transgenic mice, and permit repeated imaging of axon regeneration over 4 cm in the PNS and axon interactions with the interface of the CNS.

Lampreys recover locomotion after a complete spinal cord injury. However, some spinal-projecting neurons are good regenerators and others are not. This paper illustrates the techniques for housing sea lamprey larvae (and recently transformed adults), producing complete spinal cord transections and preparing wholemount brains and spinal cords for in situ hybridization.

We describe the development of a lean PCOS-like mouse model with dihydrotestosterone pellet to study the pathophysiology of PCOS and the offspring from these PCOS-like dams.

Primary hepatocytes are a valuable tool to study liver response and metabolism in vitro. Utilizing commercially available reagents, an improved time- and labor-efficient protocol for mouse primary hepatocyte isolation was developed.