Kainic acid sensitivity of mammalian Purkinje cells in monolayer cultures.

Purkinje cells from fetal mouse cerebellum were studied in a monolayer culture system. These neurons, labeled by intracellular iontophoresis of HRP, showed one or more thick, spine-covered dendrites and an axon whose swellings contacted other neuronal processes and Purkinje cell somata. In short-term experiments, kainic acid was cytotoxic to Purkinje neurons and not to granule cells in monolayer cultures of fetal rat cerebellum.