Dissection and Coronal Slice Preparation of Developing Mouse Pituitary Gland

Summary

We present a protocol to dissect pituitary glands and prepare pituitary coronal sections from developing mice.

Abstract

The pituitary gland or hypophysis is an important endocrine organ secreting hormones essential for homeostasis. It consists of two glands with separate embryonic origins and functions — the neurohypophysis and the adenohypophysis. The developing mouse pituitary gland is tiny and delicate with an elongated oval shape. A coronal section is preferred to display both the adenohypophysis and neurohypophysis in a single slice of the mouse pituitary.

The goal of this protocol is to achieve proper pituitary coronal sections with well-preserved tissue architectures from developing mice. In this protocol, we describe in detail how to dissect and process pituitary glands properly from developing mice. First, mice are fixed by transcardial perfusion of formaldehyde prior to dissection. Then three different dissecting techniques are applied to obtain intact pituitary glands depending on the age of mice. For fetal mice aged embryonic days (E) 17.5 - 18.5 and neonates up to 4 days, the entire sella regions including the sphenoid bone, gland, and trigeminal nerves are dissected. For pups aged postnatal days (P) 5 - 14, the pituitary glands connected with trigeminal nerves are dissected as a whole. For mice over 3 weeks old, the pituitary glands are carefully dissected free from the surrounding tissues. We also display how to embed the pituitary glands in a proper orientation by using the surrounding tissues as landmarks to obtain satisfying coronal sections. These methods are useful in analyzing histological and developmental features of pituitary glands in developing mice.

Introduction

The pituitary gland or hypophysis is an important endocrine organ secreting hormones essential for homeostasis^1,2. Anatomically, the pituitary gland is a ''two-in-one'' structure consisting of the neurohypophysis and the adenohypophysis. These parts have different embryonic origins and function very differently. The neurohypophysis is derived from the neural ectoderm and secretes oxytocin and antidiuretic hormone. The adenohypophysis originates from Rathke's pouch and is responsible for the release of hormones including growth hormone, prolactin, thyroid-stimulating hormone, follicle-stimul....

Protocol

C57BL/6 mice are bred in specific pathogen-free conditions. All animal experimental methods are in compliance with the guidelines approved by the Animal Care and Ethics Committee at Second Military Medical University.

1. Dissection of Postnatal Developing Pituitary Gland

1. Perform anesthesia: Place neonatal mice (P0 - P5) on crushed ice to induce hypothermia. For mice older than 5 days of age, inject 5% urethane (30 µL/g of body weight) intraperitoneally to induce anesthesia. Assess responses to tail/toe pinches. Proceed only after the mouse is unresponsive to the noxious stimuli.
2. Secure the mouse in the supine posi....

Results

This protocol presents a method to dissect pituitary glands from developing mice. For the neonatal mouse, the whole sella regions containing the pituitary gland, the trigeminal nerves, and the underneath sphenoid bone were dissected out from the skull base. The tiny and delicate pituitary gland remained intact during the process (Figure 1A). For mice older than 5 days, the pituitary glands attached to the lateral trigeminal nerves were then isolated. The gros.......

Discussion

For developing murine pituitaries, it has been technically difficult to obtain proper coronal sections due to their tiny and fragile features and unique anatomical characteristics^6,8. Some research groups thus chose mid-sagittal sections to analyze the morphology of embryonic and neonatal pituitary^11,12. Though the mid-sagittal section of pituitary is also capable of showing anterior, intermediate, and po.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Tools/Equipment
Surgical scissors-straight	JinZhong	J21010	can be purchased from other vendors
Fine scissors-strainght	JinZhong	WA1010	can be purchased from other vendors
Blunt forceps	JinZhong	JD1020	can be purchased from other vendors
Fine forceps	Dumont	RS-5015	for isolation of the pituitary
26G (0.45mm) needle	HongDa		for transcardial perfusion
Syringe (1 mL)	BD	300841	can be purchased from other vendors
Syringe (10 mL)	BD		can be purchased from other vendors
35mm dish	Corning	430165	can be purchased from other vendors
Lens cleaning paper	ShuangQuan		can be purchased from other vendors
Anatomical microscope	OLYMPUS	SZX-ILLB2-200	can be purchased from other vendors
Embedding cassette	Thermo Fisher	22-272423	can be purchased from other vendors
Tissue embedding console system	KEDEE	KD-BM11	can be purchased from other vendors
Microtome	Thermo Fisher	HM315R	can be purchased from other vendors
Superfrost-Plus slides	Thermo Fisher	22-037-246	can be purchased from other vendors
Cover glass	Thermo Fisher	12-543	can be purchased from other vendors
Fluorescence microscope	OLYMPUS	BH2-RFCA	can be purchased from other vendors
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Reagents
Urethane	BBI	EB0448
NaCl	Sigma	S9625	for PBS
KCl	Sigma	P9541	for PBS
Na2HPO4.12H2O	Sigma	71650	for PBS
K2HPO4	Sigma	P2222	for PBS
NaNO2	Sigma	237213
Heparin Sodium Injection	SPH	H31022051	for perfusion saline
Paraformaldehyde (PFA)	Sigma	P6148
Ethanol	SCR	10009218
Xylene	SCR	10023418
Paraffin	Thermo Fisher	8330
Hematoxylin	Sigma	H9627	for H&E staining
Eosin Y	Sigma	E4009	for H&E staining
rabbit anti growth hormone (GH)	National Hormone		for immunostaining
antibody	Pituitary Program
Rabbit anti-mouse GFAP antibody	Sigma	G9269	for immunostaining
Goat anti-rabbit IgG, HRP	Jackson	111-035-003	for immunostaining
TSA system	NEN Life Science Products	NEL700	for immunostaining
Streptavidin, Alexa Fluor 594	Thermo Fisher	S32356	for immunostaining
Anti-FITC Alexa Fluor 488	Thermo Fisher	A11090	for immunostaining