title: Quality of pronase dissociation of mature inferior colliculus neurons.
abstract: One major advantage of acutely dissociated inferior colliculus (IC) neurons in electrophysiological investigations is their complete isolation from the surrounding cellular network. In this way, patch-clamp recordings can be performed under controlled conditions to study membrane properties of IC neurons in more detail. The aim of the present study was to adapt a dissociation method for immature IC neurons to the highly sensitive, fragile and vulnerable mature IC neurons of mammals (mice). The modification of a pronase-based dissociation protocol with respect to concentration, incubation time and handling (trituration) of the cells yielded intact, live IC neurons with a clean cell surface so that they were well suited for further electrophysiological investigations in our study. The largely modified dissociation protocol is described in detail and critically discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Potsdam, Germany. bergmann.corinna@mh-hannover.de
authors.forename: Corinna
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bergmann
authors.forename: Dietmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Basta
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ptok
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ernst
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007245:Inferior Colliculi / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011402:Pronase / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011402:Pronase