Cultured rat olfactory neurons are excitable and respond to odors.

Newborn rat nasal tissues containing olfactory epithelium were dissociated and maintained in a monolayer cell culture. Neurons were present, as determined by immunostaining with antibodies to 4 neuron-specific proteins: neuron-specific enolase, microtubule-associated protein 2, tau protein and synaptophysin. Immunostained neurons had a distinctive morphology resembling olfactory neurons. By patch-clamp analysis, these cells were electrically active. Responses of some neurons to physiological concentrations of an odorant mixture identified them as olfactory receptor cells.