Preparation of Mouse Muscle for Cryosectioning
Materials
- OCT
- Methylbutane or Isopentane (the same thing)
- Liquid Nitrogen or Dry ice (liquid nitrogen preferred)
Procedures
- Place metal beaker of isopentane in container of liquid nitogen.
- Label small pieces of popsicle sticks with mouse ids and add a drop of OCT
- Label ~5 cm2 pieces of aluminum foil with the mouse IDs
- Rapidly dissect muscle and place on the drop of OCT. Drop the entire OCT/popsicle stick into the cold isopentane. They should stay together, but if they separate take it out and proceed to the next step
- Using tweezers carefully remove the frozen muscle/OCT/wood and flip over the tin foil so the mouse id is on the outsize
- Wrap up the tin foil loosely just to hold the tissue and place back in liquid nitrogen. When complete, take the tin foil out and place in a box and store at -80 until ready to section