NEUROBIOTIN-Plus Tracer is a biotin label that is impervious to cleavage and breakdown by biotinidase. It is used for visualizing neural architecture and for the identification of gap junction coupling

Features:

• Fixable primary amine
• Can be used in many types of preparations including in vivo, whole mounts, slice preparations, or cultured cells
• Can be delivered by many routes such as intracellular electrodes, microinjection, cut-loading, or scrape-loading
• Biotin label can be detected using avidin or streptavidin systems with either chromogenic or fluorescence visualization methods

Advantages of NEUROBIOTIN Tracer over biocytin and other neuronal labels:

• Better solubility
• More efficiently iontophoresed
• Remains in cell longer
• Non-toxic
• Can be fixed with formalin or glutaraldehyde

Investigators have identified rapid degradation of injected tracers such as biocytin due to the presence of biotinidase activity in brain tissue*. This loss of stability of the tracer significantly reduces the viable postinjection period and may compromise complete detection of a neural network. NEUROBIOTIN-Plus was designed to be impervious to cleavage and breakdown by biotinidase. This newly synthesized biotin-containing compound contains fixable amine groups, is highly soluble and has a low molecular weight. These characteristics make it an ideal candidate for experiments requiring long postinjection survival times and optimal uptake along the entire neural tract.

NEUROBIOTIN-Plus shares the same key advantages of NEUROBIOTIN Tracer over biocytin and other neuronal labels:

• Better solubility
• More efficiently iontophoresed
• Remains in cell longer
• Non-toxic
• Can be fixed with formalin or glutaraldehyde/li>

NEUROBIOTIN-Plus can be detected using avidin or streptavidin systems with either chromogenic or fluorescence visualization methods.

*Mishra, A. et al (2010) ACS Chem. Neurosci. 1:129-138.