Identification of somatostatin-containing neurons in primary cultures of rat cerebral cortex.

The expression of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity was investigated in primary cultures of dissociated cerebral cortical tissue from the rat. A subpopulation of neurons in the cortical cultures exhibited intense staining for somatostatin. These somatostatin-immunoreactive neurons corresponded to 1.25% of the total neuronal population. Stained neurons were typically small with a soma size of 10-20 micron. The majority of somatostatin-containing cells had stellate and bipolar morphology, with the bipolar class predominating.