3. Tissue Culture and Immunocytochemistry Laboratory

Tissue Culture and Immunohistochemistry Laboratory is a collection of suites and research facilities dedicated to tissue culture, immunohistochemical and cytochemical interrogations for addressing a range of fundamental and translational neurobiological questions. It is a multipurpose laboratory capable of preparation and assessment of biological samples, with focus on histological and immunohistochemical investigations of acute neural tissue and biomaterials, as well as cell cultures and organotypic slices. Currently, the work is in progress towards adding viral tools to the research portfolio. The overarching goal is elucidating different physiological and pathological processes at cellular and molecular levels in normal and disease affected neural tissue and in vivo brain. To this end, a wide range of modern equipment and cutting-edge tools are utilised for sample preparation from animal models (surgery, perfusion pumps, cryostat) and for culturing cell lines and tissue extracts, as well as primary neurones (laminar flow box, CO2 incubator etc).

Assistance and Services

In addition to supporting the research projects within the Department of Experimental Neurobiology, the Tissue Culture and Immunohistochemistry Laboratory offers serves for research activities throughout the NIMH. Also, immunohistochemical and histochemical services are offered for outside users but on basis of scientific cooperation.

Key equipment

• Instrumentation for anesthesia and animal surgery, transcardial perfusion, tissue extraction, fixation and processing for immunohistochemistry and cytochemistry

• Perfusion pumps and laboratory accessories for fixation, with a wide range of possibilities enabling processing and preparation of samples to meet the specific experimental requirement

• Semi-automatic cryostat Leica CM1860UV for cutting thin and ultrathin frozen sections for histological and ultrastructural analysis, section thickness selection ranging 1 - 100 μm at a temperature range from 0 °C to -35 °C

• Luminometer Lumicycle enables high-throughput luminometry on self-luminous tissues, such as those from transgenic animals containing the luciferase gene. The latter enables also a wide range of read-outs and applications, including chronobiological studies.