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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Apr 4.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Protoc. 2015 Oct 22;10(11):1802–1819. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2015.119

Figure 12.

Figure 12

Positioning and intravital imaging of the mouse. (a) A surgical drape covers the animal during the procedure, except for the exposed thoracotomy. (b) The animal is placed under the microscope on a heated stage. (c) The stabilizer also sits on the stage, and it is positioned using a translation stage (d). Imaging is performed without the objective lens contacting the mouse or the stabilizer. (e) A low-magnification lens (2×) helps to identify the region of interest and to position the high-magnification objective at the center of the stabilizer. (f) After positioning, the high-magnification objective is immersed in water for imaging. All animal procedures and protocols were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and they are in accordance with the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.