The lacteal is a blunt-ended lymphatic capillary located at the center of a villus in the small intestine that plays multifaceted roles under both physiologic and pathologic conditions. However, studies of its biology are limited by the lack of a feasible method to visualize all the relevant components for its regulation. Here, we describe an efficient whole-mount protocol to visualize the intact structure of lacteals and surrounding cells in villi of the small intestine of adult mouse.
Keywords: Confocal imaging; Immunohistochemistry; Lacteal; Small intestine; Whole-mount.