Rat brain sagittal organotypic slice cultures as an ex vivo dopamine cell loss system.

BACKGROUND

Organotypic brain slice cultures are a useful tool to study neurological function as they provide a more complex, 3-dimensional system than standard 2-dimensional in vitro cell cultures.

NEW METHOD

Building on a previously developed mouse brain slice culture protocol, we have developed a rat sagittal brain slice culture system as an ex vivo model of dopamine cell loss.

RESULTS

We show that rat brain organotypic slice cultures remain viable for up to 6 weeks in culture. Using Fluoro-Gold axonal tracing, we demonstrate that the slice 3-dimensional cytoarchitecture is maintained over a 4 week culturing period, with particular focus on the nigrostriatal pathway. Treatment of the cultures with 6-hydroxydopamine and desipramine induces a progressive loss of Fluoro-Gold-positive nigral cells with a sustained loss of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive nigral cells. This recapitulates the pattern of dopaminergic degeneration observed in the rat partial 6-hydroxydopamine lesion model and, most importantly, the progressive pathology of Parkinson's disease.

COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS

Our slice culture platform provides an advance over other systems, as we demonstrate for the first time 3-dimensional cytoarchitecture maintenance of rat nigrostriatal sagittal slices for up to 6 weeks.

CONCLUSION

Our ex vivo organotypic slice culture system provides a long term cellular platform to model Parkinson's disease, allowing for the elucidation of mechanisms involved in dopaminergic neuron degeneration and the capability to study cellular integration and plasticity ex vivo.