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How they discovered it: > The vessels were detected after Louveau developed a method to mount a mouse’s meninges – the membranes covering the brain – on a sing
by nate_meurer 11y ago
How they discovered it:
> The vessels were detected after Louveau developed a method to mount a mouse’s meninges – the membranes covering the brain – on a single slide so that they could be examined as a whole. “It was fairly easy, actually,” he said. “There was one trick: We fixed the meninges within the skullcap, so that the tissue is secured in its physiological condition, and then we dissected it."
Can someone explain what it means to fix the meninges to the skullcap? Do they mean they attached it to the skull bone? How then do they mount a curved bone to a slide?
- richardbrevig 11y agoIf I had to venture a guess: They're referring to fixation [0], or preservation of the tissue, and not to affixation, the attachment of something. So, basically, they fixed the tissue prior to removing it from the skull, causing it to keep form. Whereas, if they removed the tissue from the skull and then chemically fixed it, the tissue would have already lost form and the lymph would be undetectable (no longer be in original form). Think about a cake in a pan. Baking = fixing. Remove the cake before "fixing" it, and it's a plot of mess. "Fix" it first, and you have a free-standing cake, it'll hold shape. Bad analogy, sorry. :) [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixation_(histology) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixation_(histology) Edit: forgot reference.
- nate_meurer 11y agoThank you! That makes sense of the wording; they fixed the tissue within the skullcap, not to it.