Array Tomography: A Novel High-Resolution Immunofl uorescence Technique

SOIZA REILLY M*

Immunocytochemistry and Related Techniques

Springer Science+Business Media

Lugar: New York; Año: 2015; p. 377 - 388

Understanding synaptic connectivity patterns between neurons and fi ne anatomical features of neural circuits represent key steps in our journey to unravel brain connectomes . In the last few years the development of new imaging tools and technologies has signifi cantly improved our understanding of neural circuits. A remarkable example of this is a high-resolution immunofluorescence technique called array tomography ( AT ). AT combines conventional immunofluorescence techniques to label antigens withultrathin (70 nm) serial sectioning, and 3D reconstruction. Thus, serial images can be aligned and rendered into volumetric images suitable for semi-automated quantitative analysis using the ImageJ software. AT allows antibody elution and multiple rounds of immunolabeling , offering the unique possibility of examining the spatial distribution of multiple antigens and their relationships to each other in the same tissue volume . AT represents a new powerful and quantitative tool, particularly useful to characterize molecular components of synapses as well as to explore fi ne anatomical features within thesynaptic neuropil.