Topographical mapping of sympathetic postganglionic innervation of the mouse heart
Contributors: 
Ariege (Gigi) Bizanti
,
Yuanyuan Zhang
,
Mahyar Osanlouy
,
Maci Heal
,
Jin Chen
,
Zixi Cheng
Description: Anatomical mapping of sympathetic efferent projection to the mouse heart

Abstract
Study Purpose: To map the topographical distribution of the sympathetic postganglionic innervation in whole atria of mice. Our work will provide a comprehensive topographical map of the catecholaminergic axon distribution and morphology innervation of the whole heart at single cell/axon/synapse scale that will provide a cardiac sympathetic-brain atlas.

Data Collection: State-of-the-art imaging (Confocal and Fluorescence Microscopy), Neurolucida 360.

Primary Conclusion: We found that (1) 4–5 major extrinsic tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-immunoreactive (IR) nerve bundles entered the atria at the superior vena cava, right atrium (RA), left precaval vein, and the root of the pulmonary veins (PVs) in the left atrium (LA). Although these bundles projected to different areas of the atria, their projection fields partially overlapped. (2) TH-IR axon and terminal density varied considerably between different sites of the atria, with the greatest density of innervation near the sinoatrial node region (P < 0.05, n = 6). (3) TH-IR axons also innervated blood vessels and adipocytes. (4) Many principal neurons in intrinsic cardiac ganglia and small intensely fluorescent cells were also strongly TH-IR.

Curator's Notes

Experimental Design: In this study, we used Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) as a marker for sympathetic axons. We applied a combination of state-of-the-art techniques, including confocal microscopy, Zeiss Imager microscopy, flat-mount tissue processing, immunohistochemistry, Neurolucida Tracing, and integration of the tracing data onto a 3D Heart Scaffold.

Completeness: This dataset is complete.

Subjects & Samples: 8 male wild-type mice (RRID:IMSR_JAX000664) were used in this study.

Primary vs derivative data: Data in the primary folder are organized by subject ID, then by sample ID. The primary folder contains either confocal images in a .tif format or Neurolucida 360 Tracing files .xml. The primary images in the derivative folder were converted with 20:1 compression to JPEG2000 (.jp2) by MBF Bioscience for web streaming and visualization on the SPARC Data Portal. The primary images were also converted with lossless compression to OME-TIFF (.tif) by MBF Bioscience. Microscopy image metadata is included in the file header of all .jp2 and .tif in the derivative folder.

Metadata
Experimental Design:

Protocol Links:
https://doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.n92ldzbmxv5b/v2
https://doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bygmptu6
Experimental Approach: Anatomy, Connectivity, Microscopy
Subject Information:

Anatomical structure: Heart
Species: Mouse
Sex: Male
Age range: Adult
Number of samples: 9 samples from 8 subjects

Keywords: Cardiac sympathetic innervation, 3d heart reconstruction, Postganglionic axons and terminals, Mouse heart

About this dataset
Title: Topographical mapping of sympathetic postganglionic innervation of the mouse heart
First Published: April 7, 2023
Last Published: April 7, 2023

Contact Author:
Ariege (Gigi) Bizanti
abizanti@knights.ucf.edu
Award(s):
Funding Program(s):
Associated project(s):
Institution(s):
About this version
Version 1 Revision 0: Publication date: April 7, 2023 (Last updated: April 7, 2023)