Stereotaxic Surgery Equiptment

June 06, 2017

Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience
Graduate student

Overall

Performance

Ease-of-Optimization

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Company:

Stoelting

Product Name:

Digital Dual Lab Standard with Mouse & Neonatal Rat Adaptor

Catalog Number:

51928

The goal of our laboratory is to understand the function of the cerebellum in health and disease. We frequently perform stereotaxic surgeries in mice to inject viruses that encode shRNAs against proteins involved in movement disorders or optogenetic actuators and/or to implant chronic recording and imaging devices.

Experimental Design and Results Summary

Application

Stereotaxic surgeries

Starting Material

Mouse

Protocol Overview

Stereotaxic surgeries must be performed according to your animal protocol. Anesthetize the mouse and place it on the platform. Insert the animal's teeth into the bite bar and tighten the nose clamp. Stabilize the head by inserting the ear bars into the ears. Make sure that the ear bars are pressing on the skull enough to keep it secure, but not too hard as to cause damage. Use knobs to manipulate stereotaxic arm to locate bregma. Zero the X, Y, and Z coordinates at bregma. Measure the distance to lambda and try to minimize the difference between bregma and lambda in the Z axis. The height of the nose can be adjusted with the knob attached to the bite bar. Additionally, the height of the ear bars can be adjusted individually. Once the head is straight, use the stereotaxic arm and digital screen to locate any other points you might need (injection or implant sites, for example).

Tips

It is very difficult to stabilize the head with the plastic ear bars.

Results Summary

The stereotaxic manipulator enables injections and/or implantations at precise locations. However, it can be very difficult to stabilize the head with the plastic ear bars.

Features Summary

Height of the ear bars can be independently adjusted to level the skull.

DOI or PMID #

N/A

Additional Notes

I prefer the Kopf brand stereotaxic frame.

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Summary

The Good

Height of ear bars can be independently adjusted.

The Bad

It can be very difficult to stabilize the head.

The Bottom Line

This is piece of equipment is adequate. It takes a long time and a lot of practice to properly stabilize the head, but once that is done, you can perform precise injections in the mouse brain. It is less expensive than the Kopf brand frame, but does not perform quite as well in my experience.

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