Organotypic Explants
Organotypic Explants - Related Videos
04:44
Renal Organotypic Culture on Chicken CAM: A Technique for Transplantation of Murine Kidney Explants on Chicken CAM to Induce Formation of Renal Vascular Architecture
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2023
This video describes a method for studying organ development using an improved xenotransplantation setup on chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) from avian embryos. This method allows for the development of fully vascularized cultured embryonic organs and organoids.
10:32
Organotypic Retinal Explant Cultures from Macaque Monkey
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Cited by 2 •
2022
Retinal explants obtained from wild-type macaques were cultured in vitro. Retinal degeneration and the cGMP-PKG signaling pathway was induced using the PDE6 inhibitor zaprinast. cGMP accumulation in the explants at different zaprinast concentrations was verified using immunofluorescence.
07:45
Explant Culture of Neural Tissue
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2023
The intricate structure of the vertebrate nervous system arises from a complex series of events involving cell differentiation, cell migration, and changes in cell morphology. Studying these processes is essential to our understanding of nervous system function as well as our ability to diagnose and treat disorders that result from abnormal development. However, neural tissues are relatively inaccessible for experimental manipulations, especially in embryonic mammals. As a result, many...
06:25
Explant Culture for Developmental Studies
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2023
Explant culture is a technique in which living cells or tissues are removed from an embryo for continued development outside of the organism. This ex vivo approach allows researchers to manipulate and observe developing tissues in ways that are not possible in vivo. Once established, explant culture is frequently used to understand the role of genes and signaling molecules in organogenesis. This video will first introduce the basic principles of explant culture and demonstrate a protocol to...
05:52
Long-Term, Serum-Free Cultivation of Organotypic Mouse Retina Explants with Intact Retinal Pigment Epithelium
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Cited by 46 •
2020
The protocol describes organotypic explants of mouse neuroretina, cultivated together with its retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), in R16 defined medium, free of serum and antibiotics. This method is relatively simple to perform, less expensive, and time-consuming when compared to in vivo experiments, and can be adapted to numerous experimental applications.
FAQs
The preserved three-dimensional architecture keeps cells positioned within tissue-level relationships rather than removing them from their surrounding organization. Those relationships allow investigators to examine how cellular interactions and local signaling accompany growth, migration, or differentiation. As a result, observations can reflect coordinated tissue behavior, not only the response of individual cells studied in isolation.
Culture at an air–liquid interface or within an extracellular matrix support helps maintain the structural setting needed for tissue viability outside the organism. These arrangements provide controlled physical and environmental conditions while retaining aspects of the native microenvironment. Choosing a suitable support is therefore central to sustaining the explant long enough to observe organization, signaling, or injury-related responses.
Compared with isolated cell cultures, organotypic explants retain more tissue architecture and cellular interaction; compared with whole-animal studies, they offer a controlled laboratory setting. This intermediate position lets researchers examine tissue-level responses while manipulating conditions and treatments more directly. The model therefore connects cellular behavior with broader biological processes without requiring the full complexity of an intact organism.
Establishing an organotypic explant begins with dissecting a tissue fragment and placing it in a suitable culture medium under controlled laboratory conditions. The tissue may be maintained at an air–liquid interface or supported within an extracellular matrix. Researchers then monitor its viability and tissue behaviors, including growth, migration, differentiation, and signaling, during the culture period.
Their applications include developmental biology, tissue organization, injury responses, and disease mechanisms. Because the explant preserves key features of the tissue microenvironment, researchers can follow how cells behave collectively as tissue changes. This makes the model useful when the question concerns coordinated growth, migration, differentiation, or signaling rather than a single isolated-cell property.
The approach allows treatments to be tested on tissue that still preserves aspects of its native cellular environment. Researchers can observe how the tissue responds while maintaining relevant architecture and interactions, rather than evaluating effects only in isolated cells. This supports investigations of treatment-related changes in tissue organization, growth, migration, differentiation, signaling, or injury responses under controlled laboratory conditions.