Surgical procedures to study microglial motility in the brain and in the spinal cord by in vivo two-photon laser-scanning microscopy

Abstract

Microglia are the innate immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS). As such, they contribute to neural inflammation in a large number of neurodegenerative diseases. The processes of microglia are continuously moving to survey the brain parenchyma. Depending on local signals, microglia can almost instantaneously change their morphology. Two-photon laser-scanning microscopy (2P-LSM) has become the method of choice to study microglia in vivo. Here, we will describe in detail surgical procedures to prepare transgenic mice with fluorescent protein expression for 2P imaging of microglia in the cortex and the spinal cord. In addition, we will give some advice how to optimize image quality. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.