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METHODS article

Front. Physiol.
Sec. Vascular Physiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2024.1535711
This article is part of the Research Topic Unraveling the Influence of Perivascular Adipose Tissue on Vascular Health View all articles

Rat perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) microvasculature revealed by tissue clearing

Provisionally accepted
Stephanie W Watts Stephanie W Watts *Emma Flood Emma Flood Brian David Gulbransen Brian David Gulbransen William F Jackson William F Jackson
  • Pharmacology & Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) surrounds the majority of blood vessels and fulfills diverse roles in vascular and metabolic functions. Hormonal and lipid exchange functions of PVAT require access to blood vessels. However, the microvascular supply of PVAT, especially in the rat, remains enigmatic due to technical restraints involved in imaging fat depots. Therefore, we developed and validated an approach to visualize the microvasculature of PVAT in the rat. Here, we report a step-wise protocol as a method to clear and visualize the microvasculature of the thoracic aortic PVAT of the Dahl salt sensitive (SS) rat. Blood vessels are first traced in anesthetized rats using lycopersicon esculentum (tomato) Lectin DyLight 649 (Lectin 649). The dissected aorta with intact PVAT then was subjected to a step-wise clearing protocol over 12 days, followed by imaging on a Nikon confocal microscope. Images were stitched to visualize cross-sections of whole vessels. The microvasculature of aortic PVAT is present and profoundly dense, and was similar in the ventral and lateral lobes of aortic PVAT. This developed method is adoptable and adaptable to other PVATs in the rat.

    Keywords: PVAT, tissue clearing, EZClear, Lectin, microvasculature, rat

    Received: 27 Nov 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Watts, Flood, Gulbransen and Jackson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Stephanie W Watts, Pharmacology & Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States

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