Fig. 5: Sub-micron resolution imaging of peripheral nerve axons in an intact adult Thy1-YFP16 mouse forepaw with skin and hair.
An intact forepaw including the skin and hair from an adult Thy1-YFP-16 mouse was imaged with a 40×/1.3 NA objective (voxel size, 0.4 × 0.4 × 1.2 µm3). The digits were not included in the image (yellow, YFP signal; red, autofluorescence). a Reconstructed final image stack of 3.4 (x) × 4.0 (y) × 7.3 (z) mm3 dimension was stitched from 35 slabs with a thickness of 250–300 µm thickness each. b A sub-block of 500 µm in thickness (i.e., the z dimension; dotted line in a) is shown in the x–y orientation. Boxed regions were enlarged and re-sliced to show various structures including a Meissner corpuscle (b1), lanceolate ending surrounding a hair follicle (b2), NMJs (b3), nerve bundles in a longitudinal orientation (b4), a nerve bundle cross-section (b5) and a sensory axon with its branches under the skin (b6). c A sub-block of 200 µm in the x dimension was shown in the y–z orientation to display the structure continuity in the z dimension. Boxed regions were enlarged and re-sliced to show various structures including sensory nerves within a walking pad (c1), NMJs (c2), LTMR innervating hair follicles (c3) and LTMR axons (c4). Dotted lines in c3 and c4 indicated boundaries between 2 stitched adjacent slabs in the z dimension. d Sensory nerves innervating the three carpal vibrissae (asterisks) at the wrist position (arrow in a).
