The Laboratory of Tissue Culture and Immunohistochemistry is a combination of several facilities dedicated to tissue culture, immunohistochemistry, and cytochemistry methods that address basic and translational questions in neurobiology. They are multi-purpose laboratories dedicated to the preparation, histological and immunohistochemical analyzes of biological samples of nervous tissue and other biomaterials, such as tissue cultures and organotypic sections. Viral vector manipulation is currently newly approved, adding another research tool to our portfolio.
The goal of our research is to elucidate various physiological and pathological processes in normal or affected tissue and in vivo in the brain of animal models. We have at our disposal a wide range of equipment and state-of-the-art technologies for the preparation of samples from animal models (surgical equipment, perfusion pumps, cryostat) and for the cultivation of cell lines and primary neuronal cultures (laminar flow box, CO2 incubator, etc.).
Instrumentation for anaesthesia and animal surgery, tissue extraction and fixation for further immunohistochemical procedures:
- A perfusion system for transcardial perfusion and fixation with a wide range of options allowing tissue preparation according to specific requirements.
- Semi-automatic Leica CM1860UV cryostat for slicing ultrathin sections (1-100 μm) for further histological and structural analyses (with operating temperature from 0°C to -35°C).
- Lumicycle luminometer for imaging naturally luminescent tissues or tissues from transgenic animals and cells carrying the luciferase gene. This measurement is used for a large number of applications, in particular chronobiological studies.