Effect of quinolinic acid on neurons in dissociated cultures of cells of different structures of the brain

Using neurohistological and cytochemical methods in the living cells, the peculiarities of the action of endogenous neurotoxin, quinolinic acid (QUIN), on the neurons developing in the cell cultures of the hippocamp, neocortex and septum have been investigated in 17-19-day-old mouse embryos. The addition of 500 microM of QUIN on the 21st--22nd day into the nutrition medium in vitro resulted in the rapid destruction of neurons localized in glioneuronal aggregates, while the isolated nervous cells as well as septal cholinergic neurons remained intact. At earlier stages of cultivation (up to 2 weeks) QUIN did not provoke degenerative changes in the cultivated neurons. The comparison of our results with the literary data suggests that in nervous cell cultures QUIN, having mature synaptic connections with afferent nervous fibers, causes destruction of neurons.