Improved culture of individual muscle fibres with and without spinal cord explants in a collagen gel.

Suspension culture of single adult rat flexor digitorum brevis (FDB) muscle fibres in Vitrogen, a purified collagen, on tissue culture plastic or glass with mesh ring supports is superior to culture upon other substrates including collagen-, laminin-, or Vitrogen-coated tissue culture plastic. The Vitrogen gel-fibre mixture which attaches to glass or plastic provides at least 10 times more fibres per dish than does plating fibres on other substrates. Use of Vitrogen gel permits variable plating densities and the production of adequate numbers of cultures for long-term experimental comparisons of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and rhodamine-alpha-bungarotoxin (RBTX) distribution on muscle fibres. Use of 40 micrograms/ml ovotransferrin (OT) instead of chick embryo extract in the culture medium significantly improves long-term survival. Cultured fibres, with or without the addition of ventral spinal cord explants. may also be examined with electrophysiological techniques.