title: Organotypic cultures as a model of Parkinson s disease. A twist to an old model.
abstract: Organotypic cultures from the ventral mesencephalon (VM) are widely used to model Parkinson's disease (PD). In this method, neurotoxic compounds have traditionally been applied to the media to induce a uniform dopaminergic (DAergic) cell death in the tissue slices, regardless of the variation existing among slices. This study demonstrates a refinement of the toxic induction technique. We show that unilateral application of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) at the tissue surface by means of a microelectrode causes a precisely localized cell death that closely resembles an in vivo stereotactic model. This technique introduces an internal control that accounts for variation between slices and enables a precise quantification of the cell loss due to the toxin in use. We characterized organotypic VM cultures in terms of effects of 6-OHDA toxicity and number of DAergic neurons as judged by immunofluorescence and Western blots. Our findings illustrate that this new application technique greatly improves the representativeness of organotypic cultures as a model for PD.We characterized organotypic VM cultures in terms of effects of 6-OHDA toxicity and number of DAergic neurons as judged by immunofluorescence and Western blots. Our findings illustrate that this new application technique greatly improves the representativeness of organotypic cultures as a model for PD.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Molecular Biology and Neuroscience, and Department of Anatomy, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stahl
authors.forename: Øivind
authors.initials: Ø
authors.lastname: Skare
authors.forename: Reidun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Torp
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008839:Microelectrodes; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008954:Models, Biological; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D016627:Oxidopamine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D016627:Oxidopamine