Name: co-staining blood vessels and nerve fibers in adipose tissue
Uploaded: 2019-02-13T15:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Co-staining Blood Vessels and Nerve Fibers in Adipose Tissue at JoVE.com

This study was supported by the National Institute of Health (NIH) grant R01DK109001 (to K.S.).

All procedures containing animal subjects have been approved by the Animal Welfare Committee of University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (animal protocol number: AWC-18-0057).
1. Reagent Preparation
<ol>
	<li>1x phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.4): to make 1 L of 1x PBS, dissolve 8 g of NaCl, 0.2 g of KCl, 1.44 g of Na2HPO4, and 0.24 g of KH2PO4 in 800 mL of distilled water. Adjust the pH to 7.4 and fill with distilled water to achi...

<ol>
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Adipose tissue remodeling is directly linked to metabolic dysregulation during obesity development1,2. Angiogenesis and sympathetic innervation are both essential for the dynamic remodeling process2,12. Therefore, developing an applicable approach to visualize the new blood vessels as well as nerve fibers are of great importance. Previous methods have been reported for documenting angiogenesis in adipose ...

Adipose tissue has key metabolic and endocrine functions1. It dynamically expands or shrinks in response to different nutrient stresses2. The active tissue remodeling process consists of multiple physiological paths/steps including angiogenesis, fibrosis, and shaping of local inflammatory microenvironments2,3,4. Some physical stimuli, such as cold exposure and exercise, may trigger sympathetic activation, which ultimately leads to new blood vessel formation and sympathetic innervation in adipose tissues5,6. These remodeling processes are linked tightly to systemic metabolic outcomes including insulin sensitivity, the hallmark of type 2 diabetes2. Thus, visualization of these pathological changes is very important to understanding the healthy status of whole adipose tissues.
Angiogenesis is the process of new blood vessel formation. Since blood vessels provide oxygen, nutrients, hormones, and growth factors to tissue, angiogenesis has been considered a key step in adipose tissue remodeling, which has been documented with different techniques6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13. However, there remain questions about the resolution of the images, efficiency of immunostaining, and methods for quantification of vessel density. Compared to new blood vessel formation, innervation in adipose tissue has been underestimated for a long time. Recently, Zeng et al.14 used advanced intravital two-photon microscopy and demonstrated that adipocytes are surrounded by layers of nerve fibers14. Since then, researchers have started to appreciate the pivotal role of sympathetic innervation in regulation of adipose tissue physiology. Thus, developing an easy and practical approach to document adipose nerve innervation is important.
Here, we report an optimized method for the co-staining of blood vessels and nerve fibers based on our previous protocols. With this method, we can achieve clear images of blood vessels and nerve fibers without noisy background. Moreover, we obtain a resolution that is high enough for performing quantitative measurement of densities with open source software. By using this new approach, we can successfully compare the structures and densities of blood vessels and nerve fibers in different adipose depots.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Alexa Fluor 488 AffiniPure Bovine Anti-Goat IgG (H+L)</td>
			<td>Jackson ImmunoResearch</td>
			<td>805-545-180</td>
			<td>Lot: 116969</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Alexa Fluor 647 AffiniPure Donkey Anti-Rabbit IgG (H+L)</td>
			<td>Jackson ImmunoResearch</td>
			<td>711-605-152</td>
			<td>Lot: 121944</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Amira 6.0</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Licensed software</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Angio tool</td>
			<td>National Institutes of Health</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Open source software 
			https://ccrod.cancer.gov/confluence/display/ROB2/Home</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-mouse endomucin antibody</td>
			<td>R&#38;D research system</td>
			<td>AF4666</td>
			<td>Lot: CAAS0115101</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-tyrosine hydroxylase antibody</td>
			<td>Pel Freez Biologicals</td>
			<td>P40101-150</td>
			<td>Lot: aj01215y</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cover glasses high performance, D=0.17mm</td>
			<td>Zeiss</td>
			<td>474030-9020-000</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cytoseal 280</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>8311-4</td>
			<td>High-viscosity medium</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glycerol</td>
			<td>Fisher</td>
			<td>G33-500</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Paraformaldehyde,16%</td>
			<td>TED PELLA</td>
			<td>170215</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Press-to-Seal Silicone Isolator with Adhesive, eight wells, 9 mm diameter, 1.0 mm deep</td>
			<td>INVITROGEN</td>
			<td>P24744</td>
			<td>Silicone isolator</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>ProLong Diamond Antifade Mountant</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>P36965</td>
			<td>Mounting medium</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SEA BLOCK Blocking Buffer</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>37527X3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sodium azide</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>S2002-100G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tissue Path IV Tissue Cassettes</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>22-272416</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Triton &#935;-100</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>X100</td>
			<td>Generic term: octoxynol-9</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tube rotator and rotisseries</td>
			<td>VWR</td>
			<td>10136-084</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tween-20</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>P1379</td>
			<td>Generic term: Polysorbate 20</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

co-staining blood vessels and nerve fibers in adipose tissue

Recent studies have highlighted the critical role of angiogenesis and sympathetic innervation in adipose tissue remodeling during the development of obesity. Therefore, developing an easy and efficient method to document the dynamic changes in adipose tissue is necessary. Here, we describe a modified immunofluorescent approach that efficiently co-stains blood vessels and nerve fibers in adipose tissues. Compared to traditional and recently developed methods, our approach is relatively easy to follow and more efficient in labeling the blood vessels and nerve fibers with higher densities and less background. Moreover, the higher resolution of the images further allows us to accurately measure the area of the vessels, amount of branching, and length of the fibers by open source software. As a demonstration using our method, we show that brown adipose tissue (BAT) contains higher amounts of blood vessels and nerve fibers compared to white adipose tissue (WAT). We further find that among the WATs, subcutaneous WAT (sWAT) has more blood vessels and nerve fibers compared to epididymal WAT (eWAT). Our method thus provides a useful tool for investigating adipose tissue remodeling.

The distal region of the epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT), medial region of the dorsolumbar subcutaneous white adipose tissue (sWAT), and medial region of the interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT) were collected. The locations for collecting these tissues are indicated in Figure 1.
<img alt="Figure 1" class="xfigimg" src="/files/ftp_upload/59266/59266fig1.jpg" /> 
Figure 1: Ana...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Co-staining Blood Vessels and Nerve Fibers in Adipose Tissue at JoVE.com

Co-staining Blood Vessels and Nerve Fibers in Adipose Tissue

New blood vessel formation and sympathetic innervation play pivotal roles in adipose tissue remodeling. However, there remain technical issues in visualizing and quantitatively measuring adipose tissue. Here we present a protocol to successfully label and quantitatively compare the densities of blood vessels and nerve fibers in different adipose tissues.

Recent studies have highlighted the critical role of angiogenesis and sympathetic innervation in adipose tissue remodeling during the development of ...

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