Led by PhD student Jordan Higgins, the study describes a non-destructive workflow that reconstructs nuclear and dendritic architecture at the same time from intact brain tissue.
Understanding how neurons are built and connected usually means choosing between methods that show cell nuclei and methods that show the fine branching of dendrites, and most of them damage or section the tissue along the way.
The new workflow, developed by Jordan Higgins with Samuel Egan, collaborators Anna Schneemann and Brenton Cavanagh, Professor David Henshall and Dr Omar Mamad, reconstructs both nuclear and dendritic architecture from the same intact sample without destroying it. That makes it possible to relate the position of every cell to the shape of its dendrites, and to re-use precious tissue for further analysis.
The approach will support the lab's work on neuronal structure in CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder, including the striatal morphology project. The article is now available online at Elsevier and will appear in a forthcoming issue of Brain Research Bulletin.