Tissue engineering has emerged as a strategy to combat the donor shortage of human corneas for transplantation. Synthetic corneal substitutes are currently unable to support the normal phenotype of human cells and so decellularized animal corneas have been deployed to more closely provide the topographical and biochemical cues to promote cell attachment and function. Although full thickness decellularized corneas can support corneal cells, the cells are slow to populate the scaffold and density declines from the surface. To avoid these problems, this protocol describes the stacking of alternate layers of decellularized porcine corneal sheets and cell-laden collagen hydrogel to produce a corneal construct. The sheets are obtained by cryosectioning porcine corneas, decellularizing them with

Decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM) biomaterials derived from native tissues and organs are widely used for tissue engineering and wound repair. To boost their regenerative potential, ECM biomaterials can be functionalized via the immobilization of bioactive molecules. To enable ECM functionalization in a chemoselective manner, we have recently reported an effective approach for labeling native organ ECM with the click chemistry-reactive azide ligand via physiologic post-translational glycosylation. Here, using the rat lung as a model, we provide a detailed protocol for in vivo and ex vivo metabolic azide labeling of the native organ ECM using N-Azidoacetylgalactosamine-tetraacylated (Ac4GalNAz), together with procedures for decellularization and labeling characterization. Our

Long-term consequences of stroke significantly impair the quality of life in a growing population of stroke survivors. Hippocampal adult neurogenesis has been hypothesized to play a role in the pathophysiology of cognitive and neuropsychiatric long-term sequelae of stroke. Reliable animal models of stroke are paramount to understanding their biomechanisms and to advancing therapeutic strategies. We present a detailed protocol of a transient cerebral ischemia model which does not cause direct ischemic damage in the hippocampus, allowing investigations into the pathophysiology of long-term neurocognitive deficits of stroke. Furthermore, we describe a protocol for obtaining acute hippocampal slices for the purpose of electrophysiological and morphological characterization of adult-borne