Phosphotungstic acid-enhanced microCT: Optimized protocols for embryonic and early postnatal mice.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Given the need for descriptive and increasingly mechanistic morphological analyses, contrast-enhanced microcomputed tomography (microCT) represents perhaps the best method for visualizing 3D biological soft tissues in situ. Although staining protocols using phosphotungstic acid (PTA) have been published with beautiful visualizations of soft tissue structures, these protocols are often aimed at highly specific research questions and are applicable to a limited set of model organisms, specimen ages, or tissue types. We provide detailed protocols for micro-level visualization of soft tissue structures in mice at several embryonic and early postnatal ages using PTA-enhanced microCT.

Results

Our protocols produce microCT scans that enable visualization and quantitative

SUBMITTER: Lesciotto KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7125040 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature