The Impact of Fixation on the Detection of Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cell Morphology and Vascular Associations

Pfeiffer, Friederike; Sherafat, Amin; Nishiyama, Akiko

doi:10.3390/cells10061302

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Fixation on the Detection of Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cell Morphology and Vascular Associations

by

Friederike Pfeiffer

^1,2,*,

Amin Sherafat

¹ and

Akiko Nishiyama

^1,3,4,*

¹

Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

²

Department of Neurophysiology, Institue of Physiology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 72074 Tübingen, Germany

³

Institute for Systems Genomics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

⁴

The Connecticut Institute for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Cells 2021, 10(6), 1302; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10061302

Submission received: 8 February 2021 / Revised: 10 May 2021 / Accepted: 19 May 2021 / Published: 24 May 2021

(This article belongs to the Section Cells of the Nervous System)

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Abstract

Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) display numerous protrusions that extend into the surrounding parenchyma in the brain. Depending on the preparation of the tissue analyzed, these protrusions are more or less visible. We applied six different fixation methods and compared the effect of prolonged and stronger fixation on fluorescence intensity of platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha, a surface marker of OPCs. Importantly, the fluorescence signal is mostly lost on protrusions as compared to the cell body, which has to be considered for specific analyses. Additionally, we show numerous contacts established between OPCs and the brain vasculature, which will contribute to the understanding of the interactions between these two elements.

Keywords: OPC; protrusion; PDGFRα; NG2; blood vessel; fixation; immunofluorescence

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MDPI and ACS Style

Pfeiffer, F.; Sherafat, A.; Nishiyama, A. The Impact of Fixation on the Detection of Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cell Morphology and Vascular Associations. Cells 2021, 10, 1302. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10061302

AMA Style

Pfeiffer F, Sherafat A, Nishiyama A. The Impact of Fixation on the Detection of Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cell Morphology and Vascular Associations. Cells. 2021; 10(6):1302. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10061302

Chicago/Turabian Style

Pfeiffer, Friederike, Amin Sherafat, and Akiko Nishiyama. 2021. "The Impact of Fixation on the Detection of Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cell Morphology and Vascular Associations" Cells 10, no. 6: 1302. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10061302

APA Style

Pfeiffer, F., Sherafat, A., & Nishiyama, A. (2021). The Impact of Fixation on the Detection of Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cell Morphology and Vascular Associations. Cells, 10(6), 1302. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10061302

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The Impact of Fixation on the Detection of Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cell Morphology and Vascular Associations

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