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Methods for shipping live primary cortical and hippocampal neuron cultures from postnatal mice

ABSTRACT: Primary neuronal cultures have proven to be a powerful tool for studying mechanisms in neuroscience. It is technically challenging and expensive to reproduce high quality viable neuronal cultures. Laboratories that are not experienced or equipped to prepare primary neuron cultures may have difficulty producing consistent cultures for experiments. It has previously been shown that live rat embryonic hippocampal cultures can be shipped from laboratories that produce them. Here, we show that variations to this procedure allow for shipping postnatal mouse cultures of hippocampal and cortical primary neurons using standard commercial couriers. We also show that after shipping, primary neurons are viable, express synaptic markers, and demonstrate physiological activity, making them relevant models over immortalized cell lines. Among the many applications of this technique would be the preparation of cultured neurons from transgenic mouse lines in one laboratory and sharing them with distant collaborators, reducing variability. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Live primary neuronal cultures can be shipped to collaborating laboratories.• This method eliminates the time and expenses associated with primary neuronal culture.• In vitro electrophysiology of shipped cultures demonstrates appropriate maturation and activity.

SUBMITTER: Sammoura F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9794877 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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