Figure 5.

Surgeries for implanting terminal windows in the mouse interscapular brown adipose tissue (isc-BAT)

Left panel: Preparation of surgical site. Begin by injecting anesthetic intraperitoneally. Diagram and picture show site of incision. Generate a small cut between the neck and the shoulder blades to find the interscapular brown adipose tissue. Middle panel: Place window for imaging. Several options exist for imaging. Option 1: no coverslip is placed, and imaging is done directly on the hydrated exposed tissue. Option 2: A round coverslip is placed using surgical glue. Option 3: A round coverslip attached to a vacuum ring is placed on top of the incision. Right panel: Place mouse on stage and image. The head of the mouse must be secured/immobilized using a stereotaxic instrument. This includes securing at 3 main points: the teeth, and both ears. A support for the chin can be used to help immobilization. Depending on the experimental conditions, dyes can be added intravenously either before or after securing the mouse on the stage. An upright microscope is best suited to image the isc-BAT. The objective reaches the isc-BAT from the top. Scale bar: 20 μm. Created with BioRender.com.