Rat vagus nerve TH- (tyrosine hydroxylase) and ChAT- (choline acetyltransferase) positive fibers

Study Purpose: This dataset provides immunohistological images of cross sections of rat vagus nerves, identifying ChAT+ (choline acetyltransferase positive) and TH+ (tyrosine hydroxylase positive) fibers, thereby providing information on the quantity and localization of parasympathetic and sympathetic efferent fibers within the vagus nerve.

Data Collection: The dataset contains TIFF files for 9 left cervical and 9 anterior subdiaphragmatic rat vagus nerve samples, each labeled with anti-ChAT on one slice and anti-TH on another slice, totaling ~4 GB.

Primary Conclusion: None drawn.

Curator's Notes

Experimental Design: Vagus nerve samples were collected from standardized left cervical and anterior subdiaphragmatic locations from adult rats after they were euthanized following medical training courses. Each sample underwent immersion fixation in 4% PFA (paraformaldehyde) for 2 to 8 days. Following standard paraffin processing and embedding, 5 um sections were collected. Heat-induced epitope retrieval was performed, blocking, and incubation with either an anti-ChAT antibody (1:50, Millipore Sigma, AB144P, RRID:AB_2079751) or an anti-TH antibody (1:250, Abcam, ab112, RRID:AB_297840), followed by a secondary antibody (biotinylated SP-conjugated Affinipure donkey anti-goat IgG (H+L), 1:500, Jackson ImmunoResearch, 705-065-147, RRID:AB_2340397) for the anti-ChAT slides and biotinylated SP-conjugated Affinipure goat anti-rabbit IgG (H+L), 1:500, Jackson ImmunoResearch, 111-065-144, RRID:AB_2337965 for the anti-TH slides). The slides were imaged at 20x using a Nikon Ti2 inverted microscope with a DS-Ri2 color CMOS camera (Nikon Instruments Inc.). Two groups of images of the vagus nerve were captured, one group was stained for ChAT (choline acetyltransferase) and one for TH (tyrosine hydroxylase) positive fibers. Slices were stained alternatively for ChAT and TH to efficiently map both types of fibers in the same rat vagus nerve preparation.

Completeness: Dataset is complete; complementary datasets are provided for pig and human samples.

Subjects & Samples: Adult female (n=6) and male (n=6) Sprague-Dawley rats (RRID:RGD_737891) were used in this study.

Primary vs derivative data: The "primary" folder contains a folder for each subject and each subject folder has a subfolder for one or more samples. The TIF formatted images are provided for each sample. The "derivative" folder contains TIF and JP2 (JPEG 2000) derivative images of each image in the primary folder.

Code Availability: Matlab code is used to analyze TIF files, load morphology, and plot morphology.