Analysis of fiber-type differences in reporter gene expression of β-gal transgenic muscle

Methods Mol Biol. 2012:798:445-59. doi: 10.1007/978-1-61779-343-1_26.

Abstract

β-galactosidase (β-gal) is among the most frequently used markers for studying a wide variety of biological mechanisms, e.g., gene expression, cell migration, stem cell conversion to different cell types, and gene silencing. Many of these studies require the histochemical detection of relative β-gal levels in tissue cross-sections mounted onto glass slides and visualized by microscopy. This is particularly useful for the analysis of promoter activity in skeletal muscle tissue since the β-gal levels can vary dramatically between different anatomical muscles and myofiber types. The differences in promoter activity can be due to a myofiber's developmental history, innervation, response to normal or experimental physiological signals, and its disease state. It is thus important to identify the individual fiber types within muscle cross-sections and to correlate these with transgene expression signals. Here, we provide a detailed description of how to process and analyze muscle tissues to determine the fiber-type composition and β-gal transgene expression within cryosections.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal / biosynthesis
  • Frozen Sections / methods
  • Genes, Reporter*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / cytology
  • Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / metabolism*
  • Staining and Labeling / methods
  • beta-Galactosidase / analysis*
  • beta-Galactosidase / genetics

Substances

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal
  • beta-Galactosidase