Protocol outlines visualizing nerve fibers in rat knees, indicating insights into innervation in osteoarthritis.
Innervation plays a critical role in osteoarthritis (OA) pain; however, its spatial organization and disease-related alterations remain poorly characterized, largely due to the technical challenges of imaging nerves in intact joints. This protocol outlines a step-by-step workflow for visualizing neurofilament-positive (NF⁺) nerve fibers in whole and bisected rat knees using a modified version of the organic solvent-based polyethylene glycol-associated solvent system (PEGASOS) tissue clearing method (Jing et al. 2018). This approach renders rat knee joints of varying thickness optically transparent, enabling high-resolution mapping of joint innervation.
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Gaire et al. (2025) studied this question.
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