Biology of Neural Cells in Culture: A Review

Abstract

Neural tissue grown and maintained in vitro provides an opportunity to study some in situ properties of neurons and glial cells under relatively simple and carefully controlled conditions. To the extent that a given neural preparation retains properties which approach those exhibited by the intact brain, tissue (cell) culture provides an important model for the nervous system, and thus represents a potentially crucial step in system reduction, bringing us close to the mechanistic explication, at the molecular level, of neurobiological functions. The term "tissue culture" has been used to denote the in vitro cultivation and maintenance of living biological units from multicellular organisms. The techniques which have been developed for this purpose fall into four broad classes: Organotypic (explant) cultures, which are explanted from specific neuroanatomic loci to substrates as small tissue fragments. Dissociated cell cultures, which involve the seeding of enzymatically or mechanically dispersed cells on various attachment substrates. Reaggregate cultures, which require re-association of dissociated cells into small aggregates. PUrified cell populations, which are prepared by the isolation of different cell types by gradient centrifugation or other separation techniques.