Home › Neuroscience › An In Vitro Adult Mouse Muscle-nerve Preparation for Studying the Firing Properties of Muscle Afferents
Neuroscience JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

An In Vitro Adult Mouse Muscle-nerve Preparation for Studying the Firing Properties of Muscle Afferents

DOI: 10.3791/51948-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Dissect and isolate adult mouse EDL muscle with intact sensory nerve
  • ✓ Mount muscle-nerve preparation in tissue bath for electrophysiology
  • ✓ Record stretch-activated afferent firing responses to mechanical stimuli
  • ✓ Interpret spindle afferent responses during muscle contraction and stretch
Protocol

Muscle sensory neurons are involved in proprioceptor signaling and also report on metabolic state and injury related events. We describe an adult mouse in vitro muscle-nerve preparation for studies on stretch-activated muscle afferents.

Difficulty
advanced
Total time
~2–3 hours per mouse
Model organism
Mouse (adult, strain not specified)
Biosafety
BSL-1

Steps

1
Dissect extensor digitorum longus muscle and nerve

Remove adult mouse EDL muscle with attached sensory nerve branch. Careful dissection preserves nerve integrity for subsequent afferent recordings.

▶ 01:28
2
Mount muscle-nerve preparation in tissue bath

Secure EDL muscle and nerve in recording chamber with appropriate anchoring to enable stretch application and electrode positioning for extracellular recordings.

▶ 04:42
3
Record afferent firing during data collection

Position electrodes on nerve bundle and acquire baseline and evoked afferent activity using extracellular amplification and digitization.

▶ 07:44
4
Analyze spindle afferent responses to mechanical stimuli

Characterize stretch-activated afferent firing during muscle twitch contraction and ramp-and-hold stretch protocols to assess proprioceptive signaling properties.

▶ 08:51
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