小鼠前庭复合体的整体解剖及前庭神经节神经元的定量分析。

文献信息

中文摘要

前庭系统对于我们的平衡感、检测头部运动以及调节凝视和姿势至关重要。颞骨内存在五个前庭器官，包括两个耳石器官（椭圆囊和球囊），用于检测线性运动，以及三个壶腹嵴（外/水平、前、后），用于检测旋转运动。每个器官都包含一个感觉上皮，其中有检测头部运动的毛细胞和提供结构支持、释放生长因子和细胞因子以及吞噬死亡毛细胞的 supporting cells。与毛细胞形成突触的神经元从位于颞骨表面的前庭神经节（也称为 Scarpa 神经节）发出投射。以往大多数前庭神经节研究使用切片方法来观察这些细胞，这存在若干局限性。在此，我们描述了一种将小鼠前庭神经节及其连接器官（球囊、椭圆囊和三个壶腹嵴）解剖为整体标本的方法，从而能够更详细地分析神经元胞体及其向感觉上皮的树突投射。这些方法包括固定、脱钙、解剖、免疫荧光染色、共聚焦成像以及前庭神经元的三维定量。

英文摘要

The vestibular system is crucial for our sense of balance, for detecting head movements, and for regulating gaze and posture. There are five vestibular organs located inside the temporal bone, including two otolith organs (utricle and saccule), which detect linear movement, and three cristae (lateral/horizontal, anterior, and posterior), which detect rotational movement. Each organ contains a sensory epithelium with hair cells that detect head movements and supporting cells that provide structural support, release growth factors and cytokines, and phagocytose dying hair cells. The neurons that make synapses with hair cells project from the vestibular ganglion (also called Scarpa's ganglion), which is located on the surface of the temporal bone. Most previous studies of the vestibular ganglion have used sectioning methods to visualize these cells, which have several limitations. Here, we describe a method to dissect the mouse vestibular ganglion and its connecting organs (saccule, utricle, and three cristae) as a whole mount, enabling more detailed analysis of neuronal cell bodies and their dendritic projections to the sensory epithelia. These methods include fixation, decalcification, dissection, immunofluorescent staining, confocal imaging, and three-dimensional quantification of vestibular neurons.