Effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis sera on cultured cholinergic neurons.

Dissociated monolayer cultures of chick ciliary ganglion neurons have been used to study the effects of control and ALS sera. The cultured neurons survive and extend neurites for a minimum of 2 weeks in a standard tissue culture medium that contains 10% heat-inactivated human serum. Three parameters of the neurons have been examined when cultured in control and ALS sera for 8 to 12 days: (1) neuronal survival, (2) activity of the enzyme choline acetyltransferase, and (3) synthesis of 3H-acetylcholine using 3H-choline as precursor. ALS sera cause a small decrease in these three parameters, but this difference is not significant.