Neonatal mammalian spinal cord neurons and motoneurons in monolayer culture.

Previously, embryonic tissues have been used to produce monolayer cultures containing mammalian spinal cord neurons (SCN) and motoneurons (MN) for studies of the pathophysiology of motoneuron diseases. We demonstrate here that viable SCN and MN were observed in dissociated cultures from neonatal rat and mouse. These SCN and MN produced neurites and expressed acetylcholinesterase, neuron-specific enolase and neurofilament protein. These results indicate that cultured postnatal SCN and MN are capable of survival, neurite extension, and phenotypic expression in culture.