Home › Neuroscience › A Visual Description of the Dissection of the Cerebral Surface Vasculature and Associated Meninges and the Choroid Plexus from Rat Brain
Neuroscience JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

A Visual Description of the Dissection of the Cerebral Surface Vasculature and Associated Meninges and the Choroid Plexus from Rat Brain

DOI: 10.3791/4285-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Dissect cerebral surface vasculature and meninges from rat brain
  • ✓ Extract choroid plexus tissue using visual anatomical landmarks
  • ✓ Prepare highly vascular structures for downstream molecular analysis
Protocol

This video presentation shows a method of harvesting the two most important highly vascular structures that support forebrain function. They are the cerebral surface (superficial) vasculature along with associated meninges (MAV) and the choroid plexus which are necessary for cerebral blood flow and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) homeostasis.

Difficulty
advanced
Total time
~45–60 min per rat brain
Model organism
Rat
Biosafety
BSL-1

Steps

1
Remove pineal gland from exposed brain

Locate and carefully excise the pineal gland from the dorsal midline of the exposed rat brain. This tissue must be removed to provide clear access to subsequent vascular structures.

▶ 02:08
2
Dissect meninges and cerebral surface vasculature

Systematically remove the meninges and associated superficial cerebral vasculature (MAV) from the brain surface using fine dissection techniques. Preserve the vascular structures for downstream processing.

▶ 03:34
3
Extract choroid plexus from lateral ventricles

Access and carefully isolate the choroid plexus tissue from within the lateral ventricles of the brain. This highly vascular structure is critical for cerebrospinal fluid production.

▶ 06:23
4
Remove remaining meninges and process tissues

Strip any remaining meningeal tissue from the brain surface and prepare all harvested vascular specimens for molecular analysis or downstream applications.

▶ 07:59
5
Assess specimen quality and gene expression

Examine harvested tissue specimens for morphological integrity and perform molecular characterization such as gene expression profiling to validate tissue identity and quality.

▶ 09:54
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