Surface charge manipulation and electrostatic immobilization of synaptosomes for super-resolution imaging: a study on tau compartmentalization

Abstract Synaptosomes are subcellular fractions prepared from brain tissues that are enriched in synaptic terminals, widely used for the study of neural transmission and synaptic dysfunction. Immunofluorescence imaging is increasingly applied to synaptosomes to investigate protein localization. Howe...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ushashi Bhattacharya, Jia-Fong Jhou, Yi-Fong Zou, Gerald Abrigo, Shu-Wei Lin, Yun-Hsuan Chen, Fan-Ching Chien, Hwan-Ching Tai
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:
R
Q
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/dcce73005ca6481c969d0e8d56ddfc6b
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:Abstract Synaptosomes are subcellular fractions prepared from brain tissues that are enriched in synaptic terminals, widely used for the study of neural transmission and synaptic dysfunction. Immunofluorescence imaging is increasingly applied to synaptosomes to investigate protein localization. However, conventional methods for imaging synaptosomes over glass coverslips suffer from formaldehyde-induced aggregation. Here, we developed a facile strategy to capture and image synaptosomes without aggregation artefacts. First, ethylene glycol bis(succinimidyl succinate) (EGS) is chosen as the chemical fixative to replace formaldehyde. EGS/glycine treatment makes the zeta potential of synaptosomes more negative. Second, we modified glass coverslips with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) to impart positive charges. EGS-fixed synaptosomes spontaneously attach to modified glasses via electrostatic attraction while maintaining good dispersion. Individual synaptic terminals are imaged by conventional fluorescence microscopy or by super-resolution techniques such as direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM). We examined tau protein by two-color and three-color dSTORM to understand its spatial distribution within mouse cortical synapses, observing tau colocalization with synaptic vesicles as well postsynaptic densities.