In vivo monitoring of synapse maintenance and repair with intravital multiphoton microscope

Hyuno Kang

Korea Basic Science Institute, Gwangju Center

In vivo imaging of transgenic mice that express fluorescent protein in a specific cell type or tagged to a molecule provides valuable data to investigate various cellular and subcellular events occurring in their native environments. Use of conventional laser scanning confocal microscope is, however, limited by its slow scan speed and shallow imaging depth. Intravital 2-photon microscopy is a very useful optical imaging technique to overcome its limit because of its deep penetration ability and low photo toxicity. Our aim is to study how regenerating axons grow to reoccupy denervated neuromuscular synapses and what the defects are in aged animals. We also investigated the synaptic maintenance and aging related alterations.