UCSF

In 1873 Camillo Golgi discovered a staining technique that allowed for the visualization of whole neurons within the brain, initially termed 'the black reaction' and is now known as Golgi impregnation. Despite the capricious nature of this method, Golgi impregnation remains a widely used method for whole neuron visualization and analysis of dendritic arborization and spine quantification. We describe a series of reliable, modified 'Golgi-Cox' impregnation methods that complement some existing methods and have several advantages over traditional whole brain 'Golgi' impregnation. First, these methods utilize 60-100μm thick brain sections, which allows for fast, reliable impregnation of neurons in rats (7-14 days) and non-human primates (NHP) (30 days) while avoiding the pitfalls of other 'rapid Golgi' techniques traditionally employed with thin sections. Second, these methods employ several common tissue fixatives, resulting in high quality neuron impregnation in brain sections from acrolein, glutaraldehyde, and paraformaldehyde perfused rats, and in glutaraldehyde perfused NHP brain tissue. Third, because thin sections are obtained on a vibratome prior to processing, alternate sections of brain tissue can be used for additional analyses such as immunohistochemistry or electron microscopy. This later advantage allows for comparison of, for example, dendrite morphology in sections adjacent to pertinent histochemical markers or ultrastructural components. Finally, we describe a method for simultaneous light microscopic visualization of both tyrosine hydroxylase immunohistochemistry and Golgi impregnation in the same tissue section. Thus, the methods described here allow for fast, high quality Golgi impregnation and conserve experimental subjects by allowing multiple analyses within an individual animal.