The application of organotypic nerve cultures to problems in neurology with special reference to their potential use in research into neuromuscular diseases.

In organotypic nerve cell cultures there is production of central and peripheral myelin as well as synapse formation and long-term survival (months) of neuronal cell types and their associated glia. These cultures can be viewed continuously by light microscopy and are amenable to both electron microscopy and electrophysiology. Organotypic cultures have been used in studies of myelin formation and of demyelination by "toxic" sera, in the search for a neurotoxic factor in motor neurone disease and in studies of neurotrophic viruses. They have also been used to demonstrate the effects of toxins such as cyanide, lead, various industrial chemicals and neurotransmitter analogues (such as kainic acid) on myelin, axons and neurones in culture. They are currently being used in conjunction with small bundles of teased adult mammalian muscle fibres. Such bundles, cultured alone, do not regenerate. However, in the presence of various foetal tissues (neuronal or non-neuronal), the muscle regenerates to form new myotubes. Only in the presence of foetal spinal cord neurones will these myotubes differentiate further to form cross-striated, contracting muscle fibres. If the spinal cord tissue is removed when contractions have just begun, the muscle fibres revert to undifferentiated myotubes.