Standardization of Temporal Bone Sections in Experimental Animals
DING Dalian
YU Jintao
LI Peng
GAO Kelei
JIANG Haiyan
ZHANG Wenjuan
SUN Hong
YIN Shankai
Richard Salvi
Abstract：Preparation of the temporal bone for light microscopy is an important step in histological studies of the inner ear. Due to the complexity of labyrinthine three-dimensional structures in the inner ear, it is difficult to measure or compare structures of interest without a commonly accepted standardized measure of temporal bone sections. Therefore, standardization of temporal bone sections is very important for histological assessment of sensory hair cells and peripheral ganglion neurons in the cochlear and vestibular systems. The standardized temporal bone sectioning is oriented to achieve a horizontal plane of sec?tioning. Horizontal sections are collected from the epitympanum to the hypotympanum including layers in the order of the crista ampullaris of the superior and lateral semicircular canals, macula utriculi and macula sacculi, superior vestibular ganglion neu?rons, macula of saccule and inferior vestibular ganglion neurons, cochlear modiolus, endolymphatic duct and endolymphatic sac, and finally the crista ampullaris of posterior semicircular canal. Moreover, the technical details of preparing for temporal bone sectioning including fixation, decalcification, whole temporal bone staining, embedding penetration, and embedding orien?tation are also discussed.
Keywords：Experimental animalTemporal section
Publication Date：2015-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 1-6 )