Impact of Pumps on Internal Thoracic Arteries (IPITA)

Superoxide detection and confocal microscopy

: dihydroethidium staining (DHE, Sigma-Aldrich) was used to evaluate the in-situ levels of superoxide anions (O2-). DHE is permeable to cells and is oxidized by superoxide (O2-) to fluorescent products that are trapped by intercalation into the DNA. Sections (10 μm thickness) were incubated with DHE (1 μmol/L) in phosphate-buffered solution (PBS) and DAPI (4',6'-diamidino-2-phénulindole-Molecular probes, Invitrogen) for nuclear cells Fluorescent images of ethidium bromide were obtained using a confocal microscope (Nikon Eclipse TE2000S).

Time frame: 1 day

Immunochemistry

sections (10 μm thickness) of arteries were rehydrated by 500 μl of PBS during 10 minutes and fixated with 200 μl of paraformaldehyde (PFA) (pH = 7.4, room temperature) and then were rinsed by PBS. Permeabilization with 200 μl of PBS-BSA (Bovine Serum Albumin - Sigma) 10% - Tween 0.1% during 40 minutes and then saturation with PBS-BSA 10% during 40 minutes were performed. Sections were incubated overnight with 100 μl of anti-CD45 antibody at 1/500th dilution for leukocyte staining or anti-CD80 antibody at 1/200th dilution for lymphocyte staining. Antibodies were labelled with a red fluorochrome (Phycoerythrine). Karyoplasm was stained blue by DAPI solution. On day+1, sections were rinsed with PBS and analyzed with the confocal microscope. Fluorescent images were quantified with the ImageJ (NIH) software.