Preparation of Dissociated Mouse Cortical Neuron Cultures

Summary

This video shows a procedure for generating neuronal cultures from late embryo and early postnatal mouse cortex. These cultures can be used for immunocytochemistry, biochemistry, electrophysiology, calcium and sodium imaging and provide a platform to study the neuronal development of transgenic animals that carry a postnatal lethal gene mutation.

Abstract

This video will guide you through the process for generating cortical neuronal cultures from late embryo and early postnatal mouse brain. These cultures can be used for a variety of applications including immunocytochemistry, biochemistry, electrophysiology, calcium and sodium imaging, protein and/or RNA isolation. These cultures also provide a platform to study the neuronal development of transgenic animals that carry a late embryonic or postnatal lethal gene mutation. The procedure is relatively straight forward, requires some experience in tissue culture technique and should not take longer than two to three hours if you are properly prepared. Careful separation of the cortical rind from the thalamo-cortical fiber tract will reduce the number of unwanted non-neuronal cells. To increase yields of neuronal cells triturate the pieces of the cortical tissue gently after the enzyme incubation step. This is imperative as it prevents unnecessary injury to cells and premature neuronal cell death. Since these cultures are maintained in the absence of glia feeder cells, they also offer an added advantage of growing cultures enriched in neurons.

Protocol

Preparations before day of culturing:

• Prepare sterile dissecting solution (DS).
• Prepare NBM/B27 (Neurobasal Mediom with B27 supplements).
• Autoclave ddH₂O and sterilize glass coversilps, if needed.
• Coat tissue culture dishes or glass coverslips with poly-D-lysine.

Poly-D-Lysine Coating:

Prepare the day before culturing under sterile conditions.

• Thaw aliquot of 10X PDL and place on ice.
• Add 9 ml sterile ultra-filtered water to 1 ml of PDL and mix well (1X).
• Coat surfaces with 1X PDL overnight at room temperature as follows:
  ....

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
5-Fluoro-2’-deoxyuridine	Sigma-Aldrich	F0503
Sodium Chloride	Sigma-Aldrich	S9625
Vibraslicer	Campden Instruments
Potassim Chloride	Sigma-Aldrich	P4504
Sodium Phosphate Dibasic	Sigma-Aldrich	S0876
Potassium Phosphate Monobasic	Sigma-Aldrich	P5379
Hepes	Sigma-Aldrich	H3375
D (+)-Glucose	Sigma-Aldrich	G8270
Sucrose	Sigma-Aldrich	S0389
Poly-D-Lysine	Sigma-Aldrich	P7280
B27 Supplement	Invitrogen	17504-044
Neurobasal Media (NBM)	Invitrogen	21103-049
2-Amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid	Sigma-Aldrich	A5282
Bovine Albumin	Sigma-Aldrich	A7030
Trypsin Inhibitor	Sigma-Aldrich	T9253
Sodium Hydroxide, 1N solution	Fisher Scientific	SS266-1
L-Cysteine	Sigma-Aldrich	C7755
Bacto Agar	Difco Laboratories	0140-01
Papain	Worthington Biochemical	LS 03126
Sterile 0.2 μm Syringe Filter	Fisher Scientific	DDA02025S0
Glass Coverslips, No1, 12mm	Bellco Glass	1943-00012
Minimum Essential Media (MEM)	Invitrogen	11090-081	with Earle’s saltswithout L-glutamine, needed for growing non-neuronal cultures
Penicillin/Streptomycin	Invitrogen	15070-063	for non-neuronal culture
Fetal Bovine Serum	Invitrogen	16140-071	needed for non-neuronal cultures
Nunclon "Triple Flask" Tissue Culture Bottle	Fisher Scientific	12-565-25	Use for non-neuronal cultures. these flasks are very convenient when producing "conditioned Neurobasal Media/B27", but any other tissue culture flasks or dishes can be used instead.
Glass bottom "Imaging dishes"	MatTek Corp.	P35G-1.5-10-C	Glass bottomed, 35mm culture dishes ideal for Calcium or Sodium Imaging when using an inverted imaging setup. But expensive!