Precisionary Instruments

faster, simpler, more productive slicing

What People Are Saying?

Dr. Jonathan Ting, Duke University/MIT

"With the Compresstome™ I was able to prepare high quality slices with excellent preservation near the slice surface. The main advantages of this machine are the rapid speed of slicing and the manual stabilization afforded by the agarose embedding. I am able to prepare uniform slices in both the coronal and horizontal planes, and I routinely complete transcardial perfusion, brain removal, and slicing all within less than 10 minutes, which is half the time needed with the Vibratome model. By limiting the time required for slicing the brain tissue is able to recover more easily without significant anoxia, and my slices stay viable for up to 8 hours. I have successfully been able to do targeted whole-cell recordings from fluorescently labeled neurons in slices prepared from >1 year old mice, which is not generally possible with conventional slicers and methods."

30 day old mouse prefrontal cortex slice


18 month old mouse cortex slice

18 month old mouse whole cell recording

Dr. David Keays, Institute of Molecular Pathology Vienna

"We spent six months trying to cut our tissue (avian olfactory) with a Vibratome..... but without success. It took just 10 minutes with the Compresstome, and the sections are beautiful. It's the best investment my lab has made."

Dr. Perez-Zoghbi, Texas Tech University

"We found the Compresstome produces a less apparent damage to the cells of the airways and arterioles as well as to the delicate alveolar parenchyma. Using the Compresstome we are able to obtain more reproducible and successful experiments."

 

Newton Woo, PhD NICHD/NIH

"For the past several months, I have been using the Precisionary Instruments Inc VF-200 to cut 300 um prefrontal cortical slices for electrophysiological recordings. As a result, I have been consistently cutting exceptional quality brain slices and have succeeded in obtaining stable whole-cell patch recordings from numerous neurons. Because I am using transgenic mice that have fluorescent reporters, it is of great importance to achieve maximal cell viability and minimal cell death. When I use the VF-200, I have significantly greater number of surface neurons than those slices cut from a regular Vibratome™. In addition the slice surface is much more even, which allows for better imaging. A small adjustment I have made to this system is melting dental wax between the blade and the holder, which holds the blade in place sufficiently, instead of the conventional method using glue. This alleviates many of the problems associated with removing the glue off the blade holder. I am thoroughly impressed with the VF-200 and would not hesitate recommending this quality product to fellow electrophysiologists. Shown below is a sample image of a 300um PFC slice taken from a 3 week old mouse."

 

Dr. Yan Gu and Dr. Shaoyu Ge -- Department of Neurobiology, SUNY at Stony Brook.

We received a demo VF-300 microtome unit from Precisionary Instruments Inc and used it for 2 months. Although we have experience using a variety of microtomes from different vendors, we were excited by the VF-300's ability to provide superior slices when combined with the recommended cutting buffer. We obtained surprisingly good electrophysiology results from even slices of relatively old (6 week) animals. The slices were very clean on the surface, and the majority of the cells were alive including those very close to the surface. As they mentioned, the model's design is also suited to cutting small or very soft tissues. We also used it for preparing organotypic tissue cultures, and it worked well. Shown below are 300 micron hippocampal slices from a 6-week old mouse.

 

CA1


Dentate Gyrus

 

Dr. Jie Wu, Director of Epilepsy Research, Barrow Neurological Institute.

For months we attempted to obtain mechanically-dissociated neurons with adherent boutons but had no success. It was determined that perhaps our choice of vibratome was impeding the obtainment of our goals. At first, we used a microtome purchased from World Precision Instruments, and after repeated failure we purchased a tissue sectioning system from The Vibratome Company, but again we experienced continual failure. Then, we became familiar with a microtome manufactured by Precision Instruments, Inc (VF-200). Immediately we experienced success in obtaining mechanically-dissociated neurons with adherent pre-synaptic boutons using the microtome from Precisionary Instruments, Inc., and we also noticed cell quality was much higher when compared to neurons obtained using the other vibratomes. Also, cell survival rates were significantly higher when using the VF-200. Currently, we are able to routinely perform (on a daily basis) patch-clamp recordings from mechanically-dissociated neurons with adherent boutons only when using the VF-200, which was previously unobtainable using vibratomes purchased from other leading companies. As a result, we are able to successfully study pre-synaptic receptor function using single, dissociated neurons and help elucidate the mechanisms governing nicotine-induced reward and dependence. A sample of our results obtained using the VF-200 is provided below.

Fig. 1. Mechanical dissociation (with no enzyme treatment) of single neurons from rat VTA. From the VTA region (Aa), single neurons were mechanically isolated (Ab-e, phase contrast pictures) using the nerve-adherent-bouton technique. B shows an isolated VTA neuron following patch-clamp recording (Ba) labeled with lucifer yellow (Bb) and exhibiting a positive reaction to tyrosine hydroxylase (Bc), confirming its dopaminergic (DAergic) phenotype. Using the fluorescent dye FM1-43, pre-synaptic boutons adherent on a mechanically-dissociated VTA DAergic neuron were revealed (C, yellow arrows). Scale bars = 30 ?m in A-C.

Fig. 2. Pharmacological characterization of sIPSCs in mechanically-dissociated VTA DAergic neurons. The solid, horizontal bars in Aa,c,e indicate time periods of drug exposure. Ab,d,f reveal frequency of sIPSCs. B: Summary of pharmacological effects on sIPSCs.

-Dr. Jiang-Hong Ye, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

"I was lucky to be the first one to try the VF-200 made by Precisionary Instruments Inc. At first, I was skeptical, but the results were astonishing. I have been using a Vibroslice ™ (Campden Instruments, Leicester , UK) for over 13 years, and I would never get so many living cells in one field as with the VF-200. This is also true and especially impressive for tissue of older animals. The oldest rats we used were 31 days of age. The cell quality was very good and the field was very clean. The VF-200 has greatly improved our productivity. Many thanks to Precisionary Instruments Inc. for creating such a wonderful instrument, and for their significant contribution to the neuro-science field."


Compresstome References

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* Zhao S, Ting JT, Atallah HE, Qiu L, Tan J, Gloss B, Augustine GJ, Deisseroth K, Luo M, Graybiel AM, Feng G. Cell type–specific channelrhodopsin-2 transgenic mice for optogenetic dissection of neural circuitry function. Nat Methods. 2011;8(9):745-52.

 

* Sanderson MJ. Exploring lung physiology in health and disease with lung slices. Pulm Pharmacol Ther. 2011 Oct;24(5):452-65.

 

* Biag J, Huang Y, Gou L, Askarinam A, Hahn JD, Toga AW, Hintiryan H, Dong HW. Cyto- and chemoarchitecture of the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus in the C57BL/6J male mouse: A study of immunostaining and multiple fluorescent tract tracing. J Comp Neurol. 2011 Jun 14. doi: 10.1002/cne.22698. [Epub ahead of print]

 

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* Kim S, Ma L, Yu CR. Requirement of calcium-activated chloride channels in the activation of mouse vomeronasal neurons. Nat Commun. 2011 Jun 21;2:365.

 

* S Jennifer, K Jian-Qiang, A Benjamin R A Rapid Approach to High-Resolution Fluorescence Imaging in Semi-Thick Brain Slices J Vis Exp. 2011 Jul 26;(53). pii: 2807.

 

* Hoffman JJ, Johnson BL, Holland MR, Fedewa RJ, Nair A, Miller JG. Layer-dependent variation in the anisotropy of apparent integrated backscatter from human coronary arteries. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2011 Apr;37(4):632-41.

 

* Hoffpauir BK, Kolson DR, Mathers PH, Spirou GA. Maturation of synaptic partners: functional phenotype and synaptic organization tuned in synchrony. J Physiol. 2010 Nov 15;588(Pt 22):4365-85.

 

* Li G, Yang K, Zheng C, Liu Q, Chang Y, Kerrigan JF, Wu J. Functional rundown of gamma-aminobutyric acid(A) receptors in human hypothalamic hamartomas. Ann Neurol. 2011 Apr;69(4):664-72.

 

* Viviani D, Charlet A, van den Burg E, Robinet C, Hurni N, Abatis M, Magara F, Stoop R. Oxytocin selectively gates fear responses through distinct outputs from the central amygdala. Science. 2011 Jul 1;333(6038):104-7.

 

* Viviani D, Terrettaz T, Magara F, Stoop R. Oxytocin enhances the inhibitory effects of diazepam in the rat central medial amygdala. Neuropharmacology. 2010 Jan;58(1):62-8. Epub 2009 Jul 7.

 

* Caudill MS, Eggebrecht AT, Gruberg ER, Wessel R. Electrophysiological properties of isthmic neurons in frogs revealed by in vitro and in vivo studies. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2010 Apr;196(4):249-62.

 

* Jeffry JA, Yu SQ, Sikand P, Parihar A, Evans MS, Premkumar LS. Selective targeting of TRPV1 expressing sensory nerve terminals in the spinal cord for long lasting analgesia. PLoS One. 2009 Sep 15;4(9):e7021.

 

* Pan BX, Dong Y, Ito W, Yanagawa Y, Shigemoto R, Morozov A. Selective gating of glutamatergic inputs to excitatory neurons of amygdala by presynaptic GABAb receptor. Neuron. 2009 Mar 26;61(6):917-29.

 

* Shao J, Lai D, Meyer U, Luksch H, Wessel R. Generating oscillatory bursts from a network of regular spiking neurons without inhibition. J Comput Neurosci. 2009 Dec;27(3):591-606.

 

* Alexandra A Gulacsi, Stewart A Anderson. Beta-catenin-mediated Wnt signaling regulates neurogenesis in the ventral telencephalon. Nat Neurosci. 2008 Dec;11(12):1383-91.

 

* S. Ryan Oliver,Valerie P. Wright, Narasimham Parinandi, and Thomas L. Clanton. Thermal tolerance of contractile function in oxidative skeletal muscle: no protection by antioxidants and reduced tolerance with eicosanoid enzyme inhibition. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol (September 3, 2008). doi:10.1152/ajpregu.90429.2008

 

*Sakata K, Woo NH, Martinowich K, Greene JS, Schloesser RJ, Shen L, Lu B.: Critical role of promoter IV-driven BDNF transcription in GABAergic transmission and synaptic plasticity in the prefrontal cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Apr 7;106(14):5942-7.

 

* Deng C, Li KY, Zhou C, Ye JH.: Ethanol enhances glutamate transmission by retrograde dopamine signaling in a postsynaptic neuron/synaptic bouton preparation from the ventral tegmental area. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2009 Apr;34(5):1233-44.

 

* Xiao C, Zhou C, Atlas G, Delphin E, Ye JH.: Labetalol facilitates GABAergic transmission to rat periaqueductal gray neurons via antagonizing beta1-adrenergic receptors--a possible mechanism underlying labetalol-induced analgesia. Brain Res. 2008 Mar 10;1198:34-43.

 

* Xiao C, Zhou C, Li K, Davies DL, Ye JH.: Purinergic type 2 receptors at GABAergic synapses on ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons are targets for ethanol action. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2008 Oct;327(1):196-205.

 

* Xiao C, Ye JH.: Ethanol dually modulates GABAergic synaptic transmission onto dopaminergic neurons in ventral tegmental area: role of mu-opioid receptors. Neuroscience. 2008 Apr 22;153(1):240-8.

 

* Ulrike Meyer, Jing Shao, Saurish Chakrabarty, Sebastian F. Brandt, Harald Luksch and Ralf Wessel : Distributed delays stabilize neural feedback systems Biological Cybernetics Volume 99, Number 1 / July, 2008 P.79-87

 

* Hsieh CY, Hong CT, Cramer KS.: Deletion of EphA4 enhances deafferentation-induced ipsilateral sprouting in auditory brainstem projections. J Comp Neurol. 2007 Oct 10;504(5):508-18.

 

* Li KY, Xiao C, Xiong M, Delphin E, Ye JH.: Nanomolar propofol stimulates glutamate transmission to dopamine neurons: a possible mechanism of abuse potential? J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2008 Jan 23;

 

* Ye JH, Ren J.: Cocaine inhibition of GABA(A) current: role of dephosphorylation. Crit Rev Neurobiol. 2006;18(1-2):85-94.

 

* Xiao C, Zhang J, Krnjevic' K, Ye JH.: Effects of ethanol on midbrain neurons: role of opioid receptors. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2007 Jul;31(7):1106-13.

 

* Xiao C, Zhou C, Li K, Ye JH.: Presynaptic GABAA receptors facilitate GABAergic transmission to dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area of young rats. J Physiol. 2007 May 1;580(Pt.3):731-43.

 

* Ye JH, Zhang J, Xiao C, Kong JQ.: Patch-clamp studies in the CNS illustrate a simple new method for obtaining viable neurons in rat brain slices: glycerol replacement of NaCl protects CNS neurons. J Neurosci Methods. 2006 Dec 15;158(2):251-9.

Please direction any questions about the company or inquiries of the product to info@precisionary.com.

 

* Vibratome is a registered Trademark owned by the Vibratome Company.