Fetal rat brain hemisphere tissue in nonadherent stationary organ culture.

A simple organ culture system for brain tissue is described. Fragments of fetal rat brain hemisphere tissue are explanted to multiwell dishes base-coated with semisolid agar. In this system nonadherent organ culture can be performed for at least 50 days. Cell migration, biochemical and morphological differentiation and the formation of a layered architecture seem to mimic some of the phenomena occurring in the developing rat brain in vivo. The fragments may therefore be a useful organ culture model for nervous tissue.