The spleen is the organ where the blood is being recycled and stored, moreover, it is a key hub for the body’s core defence against infections. These movies demonstrate the histological structure of the mouse spleen in three-dimension.
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Movie 1: Spleen vessels + trabeculae – basic structure
Tissue/pathology:
Young adult male C57BL/6J control mouse spleen
Antibodies:
Smooth muscle actin (SMA)
Movie description:
Spleen subcapsular and trabecular fibroblasts express smooth muscle actin (SMA). Accordingly, SMA staining depicts the spleen capsule, the trabeculae and the blood vessels; overall, the frame of the organ + its main vasculature. Here we see a half mouse spleen. This SMA immunoreactive ‘frame’ is like a bag, or a cave; the ’empty’ spaces between the connective tissue system and vessels are ‘filled up’ by the white and red pulp, vessels and nerves.
CD169 depicts a subpopulation of spleen macrophages that majorly localize in the edges of folliculi, in the marginal zones. Hence, this staining, as an overview, depicts the shape of folliculi (like ‘balls’), which are the major components of the white pulp (responsible for spleen immune functions). We see a half of a mouse spleen.
A higher resolution scan of CD169 volume staining. Zoom around
and inside the folliculi. The shape of macrophages with their processes is nicely depicted. The majority of CD169 macrophages is in the follicular marginal zones but there are some sparse cells in between the folliculi – in the red pulp. Here the ‘red pulp’ and the internal space of folliculi are ’empty’, since the perfusion washed out the red blood cells (red pulp) and the lymphocytes (inside folliculi).
We see the sympathetic (noradrenergic) innervation of a half mouse spleen. There are major nerve bundles around a big blood vessel. From these, lower order nerve fibres are running within the connective tissue network and around the folliculi, probably following smaller vessels. These noradrenergic nerves may regulate vessel functions and immuneo processes.
