Prepare for immunostaining by dissecting the stria vascularis from the mouse and add the tissue to a 24-well plate containing 200 microliters of 4%paraformaldehyde in 1X PBS. Incubate the tissue for 20 minutes at room temperature. perform two short washes of 1X PBS on an orbital shaker at low RPM.
Remove the PBS, then perform permeabilization and blocking for a minimum of one hour at room temperature in 300 microliters of PBST solution. Next, stain the tissue with the primary antibody overnight at four degrees Celsius. Then add a secondary antibody and incubate for two hours at room temperature on an orbital shaker at low RPM.
Cover the plate to protect the fluorescently tagged secondary antibody from light. Next, prepare a larger microslide by placing two small streaks of glue along the 25 mm axis, just smaller than the 18 by 18 millimeter glass cover slip. Place one drop of mounting reagent between the glue streaks.
Using number 55 forceps, gab as little tissue as possible on one end of the SV, and transfer it from PBS to the mounting reagent. Place one end of the cover slip on the slide where one streak of glue was placed. Then gently release the cover slip to avoid creating air bubbles.
Seal the mount by dabbing a drop of transparent nail polish on each corner of the mount. Label the specimen on the glass cover slip, away from the visualization field. Visualize the SV tissue under a dissection microscope to ensure it is lying flat and not near any air bubbles.
If the SV tissue is not oriented correctly, try to push out air bubbles or carefully remove the smaller glass cover slip and reposition the SV.A whole mount of SV from P30 mouse was prepared and confocal imaging was performed. ZsGreen expression was observed in the intermediate cells, GSIB4 labeled endothelial cells, and DAPI labeled the nuclei.
