Abstract
Intracerebral injections of tracers or viral constructs in rodents are now commonly used in the neurosciences and must be executed perfectly. The purpose of this article is to update existing protocols for intracerebral injections in adult and neonatal mice. Our procedure for stereotaxic injections in adult mice allows the investigator to improve the effectiveness and safety, and save time. Furthermore, for the first time, we describe a two-handed procedure for intracerebral injections in neonatal mice that can be performed by a single operator in a very short time. Our technique using the stereotaxic arm allows a higher precision than freehand techniques previously described. Stereotaxic injections in adult mice can be performed in 20 min and have >90% efficacy in targeting the injection site. Injections in neonatal mice can be performed in 5 min. Efficacy depends on the difficulty of precisely localizing the injection sites, due to the small size of the animal. We describe an innovative, effortless, and reproducible surgical protocol for intracerebral injections in adult and neonatal mice.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cardin JA, Carlen M, Meletis K, Knoblich U, Zhang F, Deisseroth K, et al. Targeted optogenetic stimulation and recording of neurons in vivo using cell-type-specific expression of Channelrhodopsin-2. Nat Protoc 2010, 5: 247–254.
Puntel M, Kroeger KM, Sanderson NS, Thomas CE, Castro MG, Lowenstein PR. Gene transfer into rat brain using adenoviral vectors. Curr Protoc Neurosci 2010, Chapter 4: Unit 4 24.
Cetin A, Komai S, Eliava M, Seeburg PH, Osten P. Stereotaxic gene delivery in the rodent brain. Nat Protoc 2006, 1: 3166–3173.
Davidson S, Truong H, Nakagawa Y, Giesler GJ, Jr. A microinjection technique for targeting regions of embryonic and neonatal mouse brain in vivo. Brain Res 2010, 1307: 43–52.
Li J, Daly TM. Adeno-associated virus-mediated gene transfer to the neonatal brain. Methods 2002, 28: 203–207.
Pilpel N, Landeck N, Klugmann M, Seeburg PH, Schwarz MK. Rapid, reproducible transduction of select forebrain regions by targeted recombinant virus injection into the neonatal mouse brain. J Neurosci Methods 2009, 182: 55–63.
Shurey S, Akelina Y, Legagneux J, Malzone G, Jiga L, Ghanem AM. The rat model in microsurgery education: classical exercises and new horizons. Arch Plast Surg 2014, 41: 201–208.
Albrecht M, Henke J, Tacke S, Markert M, Guth B. Effects of isoflurane, ketamine-xylazine and a combination of medetomidine, midazolam and fentanyl on physiological variables continuously measured by telemetry in Wistar rats. BMC Vet Res 2014, 10: 198.
Redfors B, Shao Y, Omerovic E. Influence of anesthetic agent, depth of anesthesia and body temperature on cardiovascular functional parameters in the rat. Lab Anim 2014, 48: 6–14.
Hartsfield SM. Advantages and guidelines for using ketamine for induction of anesthesia. Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract 1992, 22: 266–267.
McDowell A, Fothergill JA, Khan A, Medlicott NJ. A cyclodextrin formulation to improve use of the anesthetic tribromoethanol (Avertin((R))). J Pharm Bioallied Sci 2014, 6: 16–21.
Meyer RE, Fish RE. A review of tribromoethanol anesthesia for production of genetically engineered mice and rats. Lab Anim (NY) 2005, 34: 47–52.
Haberl MG, Viana da Silva S, Guest JM, Ginger M, Ghanem A, Mulle C, et al. An anterograde rabies virus vector for high-resolution large-scale reconstruction of 3D neuron morphology. Brain Struct Funct 2014.
Atasoy D, Aponte Y, Su HH, Sternson SM. A FLEX switch targets Channelrhodopsin-2 to multiple cell types for imaging and long–range circuit mapping. J Neurosci 2008, 28: 7025–7030.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mathon, B., Nassar, M., Simonnet, J. et al. Increasing the effectiveness of intracerebral injections in adult and neonatal mice: a neurosurgical point of view. Neurosci. Bull. 31, 685–696 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-015-1558-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-015-1558-0