An Ex vivo Culture System to Study Thyroid Development

The thyroid is a bilobated endocrine gland localized at the base of the neck, producing the thyroid hormones T3, T4, and calcitonin. T3 and T4 are produced by differentiated thyrocytes, organized in closed spheres called follicles, while calcitonin is synthesized by C-cells, interspersed in between the follicles and a dense network of blood capillaries. Although adult thyroid architecture and functions have been extensively described and studied, the formation of the “angio-follicular” units, the distribution of C-cells in the parenchyma and the paracrine communications between epithelial and endothelial cells is far from being understood.This method describes the sequential steps of mouse embryonic thyroid anlagen dissection and its culture on semiporous filters or on microscopy plastic slides. Within a period of four days, this culture system faithfully recapitulates in vivo thyroid development. Indeed, (i) bilobation of the organ occurs (for e12.5 explants), (ii) thyrocytes precursors organize into follicles and polarize, (iii) thyrocytes and C-cells differentiate, and (iv) endothelial cells present in the microdissected tissue proliferate, migrate into the thyroid lobes, and closely associate with the epithelial cells, as they do in vivo.Thyroid tissues can be obtained from wild type, knockout or fluorescent transgenic embryos. Moreover, explants culture can be manipulated by addition of inhibitors, blocking antibodies, growth factors, or even cells or conditioned medium. Ex vivo development can be analyzed in real-time, or at any time of the culture by immunostaining and RT-qPCR.In conclusion, thyroid explant culture combined with downstream whole-mount or on sections imaging and gene expression profiling provides a powerful system for manipulating and studying morphogenetic and differentiation events of thyroid organogenesis.     

Ex vivo Culture of Mouse Embryonic Skin and Live-imaging of Melanoblast Migration

Melanoblasts are the neural crest derived precursors of melanocytes; the cells responsible for producing the pigment in skin and hair. Melanoblasts migrate through the epidermis of the embryo where they subsequently colonize the developing hair follicles^1,2. Neural crest cell migration is extensively studied in vitro but in vivo methods are still not well developed, especially in mammalian systems. One alternative is to use ex vivo organotypic culture^3-6. Culture of mouse embryonic skin requires the maintenance of an air-liquid interface (ALI) across the surface of the tissue^3,6. High resolution live-imaging of mouse embryonic skin has been hampered by the lack of a good method that not only maintains this ALI but also allows the culture to be inverted and therefore compatible with short working distance objective lenses and most confocal microscopes. This article describes recent improvements to a method that uses a gas permeable membrane to overcome these problems and allow high-resolution confocal imaging of embryonic skin in ex vivo culture⁶. By using a melanoblast specific Cre-recombinase expressing mouse line combined with the R26YFPR reporter line we are able to fluorescently label the melanoblast population within these skin cultures. The technique allows live-imaging of melanoblasts and observation of their behavior and interactions with the tissue in which they develop. Representative results are included to demonstrate the capability to live-image 6 cultures in parallel.     

A Method for Culturing Embryonic C. elegans Cells

C. elegans is a powerful model system, in which genetic and molecular techniques are easily applicable. Until recently though, techniques that require direct access to cells and isolation of specific cell types, could not be applied in C. elegans. This limitation was due to the fact that tissues are confined within a pressurized cuticle which is not easily digested by treatment with enzymes and/or detergents. Based on early pioneer work by Laird Bloom, Christensen and colleagues ¹ developed a robust method for culturing C. elegans embryonic cells in large scale. Eggs are isolated from gravid adults by treatment with bleach/NaOH and subsequently treated with chitinase to remove the eggshells. Embryonic cells are then dissociated by manual pipetting and plated onto substrate-covered glass in serum-enriched media. Within 24 hr of isolation cells begin to differentiate by changing morphology and by expressing cell specific markers. C. elegans cells cultured using this method survive for up 2 weeks in vitro and have been used for electrophysiological, immunochemical, and imaging analyses as well as they have been sorted and used for microarray profiling.     

Progenitor-derived Oligodendrocyte Culture System from Human Fetal Brain

Differentiation of human neural progenitors into neuronal and glial cell types offers a model to study and compare molecular regulation of neural cell lineage development. In vitro expansion of neural progenitors from fetal CNS tissue has been well characterized. Despite the identification and isolation of glial progenitors from adult human sub-cortical white matter and development of various culture conditions to direct differentiation of fetal neural progenitors into myelin producing oligodendrocytes, acquiring sufficient human oligodendrocytes for in vitro experimentation remains difficult. Differentiation of galactocerebroside⁺ (GalC) and O4⁺ oligodendrocyte precursor or progenitor cells (OPC) from neural precursor cells has been reported using second trimester fetal brain. However, these cells do not proliferate in the absence of support cells including astrocytes and neurons, and are lost quickly over time in culture. The need remains for a culture system to produce cells of the oligodendrocyte lineage suitable for in vitro experimentation.Culture of primary human oligodendrocytes could, for example, be a useful model to study the pathogenesis of neurotropic infectious agents like the human polyomavirus, JCV, that in vivo infects those cells. These cultured cells could also provide models of other demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). Primary, human fetal brain-derived, multipotential neural progenitor cells proliferate in vitro while maintaining the capacity to differentiate into neurons (progenitor-derived neurons, PDN) and astrocytes (progenitor-derived astrocytes, PDA) This study shows that neural progenitors can be induced to differentiate through many of the stages of oligodendrocytic lineage development (progenitor-derived oligodendrocytes, PDO). We culture neural progenitor cells in DMEM-F12 serum-free media supplemented with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), platelet derived growth factor (PDGF-AA), Sonic hedgehog (Shh), neurotrophic factor 3 (NT-3), N-2 and triiodothyronine (T3). The cultured cells are passaged at 2.5e6 cells per 75cm flasks approximately every seven days. Using these conditions, the majority of the cells in culture maintain a morphology characterized by few processes and express markers of pre-oligodendrocyte cells, such as A2B5 and O-4. When we remove the four growth factors (GF) (bFGF, PDGF-AA, Shh, NT-3) and add conditioned media from PDN, the cells start to acquire more processes and express markers specific of oligodendrocyte differentiation, such as GalC and myelin basic protein (MBP). We performed phenotypic characterization using multicolor flow cytometry to identify unique markers of oligodendrocyte.     

FRET Microscopy for Real-time Monitoring of Signaling Events in Live Cells Using Unimolecular Biosensors

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) microscopy continues to gain increasing interest as a technique for real-time monitoring of biochemical and signaling events in live cells and tissues. Compared to classical biochemical methods, this novel technology is characterized by high temporal and spatial resolution. FRET experiments use various genetically-encoded biosensors which can be expressed and imaged over time in situ or in vivo^1-2. Typical biosensors can either report protein-protein interactions by measuring FRET between a fluorophore-tagged pair of proteins or conformational changes in a single protein which harbors donor and acceptor fluorophores interconnected with a binding moiety for a molecule of interest^3-4. Bimolecular biosensors for protein-protein interactions include, for example, constructs designed to monitor G-protein activation in cells⁵, while the unimolecular sensors measuring conformational changes are widely used to image second messengers such as calcium⁶, cAMP^7-8, inositol phosphates⁹ and cGMP^10-11. Here we describe how to build a customized epifluorescence FRET imaging system from single commercially available components and how to control the whole setup using the Micro-Manager freeware. This simple but powerful instrument is designed for routine or more sophisticated FRET measurements in live cells. Acquired images are processed using self-written plug-ins to visualize changes in FRET ratio in real-time during any experiments before being stored in a graphics format compatible with the build-in ImageJ freeware used for subsequent data analysis. This low-cost system is characterized by high flexibility and can be successfully used to monitor various biochemical events and signaling molecules by a plethora of available FRET biosensors in live cells and tissues. As an example, we demonstrate how to use this imaging system to perform real-time monitoring of cAMP in live 293A cells upon stimulation with a β-adrenergic receptor agonist and blocker.     

Dissection,Culture, and Analysis of Xenopus laevis Embryonic Retinal Tissue

The process by which the anterior region of the neural plate gives rise to the vertebrate retina continues to be a major focus of both clinical and basic research. In addition to the obvious medical relevance for understanding and treating retinal disease, the development of the vertebrate retina continues to serve as an important and elegant model system for understanding neuronal cell type determination and differentiation^1-16. The neural retina consists of six discrete cell types (ganglion, amacrine, horizontal, photoreceptors, bipolar cells, and Müller glial cells) arranged in stereotypical layers, a pattern that is largely conserved among all vertebrates ^12,14-18.While studying the retina in the intact developing embryo is clearly required for understanding how this complex organ develops from a protrusion of the forebrain into a layered structure, there are many questions that benefit from employing approaches using primary cell culture of presumptive retinal cells ^7,19-23. For example, analyzing cells from tissues removed and dissociated at different stages allows one to discern the state of specification of individual cells at different developmental stages, that is, the fate of the cells in the absence of interactions with neighboring tissues ^{8,19-22,24-33}. Primary cell culture also allows the investigator to treat the culture with specific reagents and analyze the results on a single cell level ^{5,8,21,24,27-30,33-39}. Xenopus laevis, a classic model system for the study of early neural development ^{19,27,29,31-32,40-42}, serves as a particularly suitable system for retinal primary cell culture ^10,38,43-45.Presumptive retinal tissue is accessible from the earliest stages of development, immediately following neural induction ^25,38,43. In addition, given that each cell in the embryo contains a supply of yolk, retinal cells can be cultured in a very simple defined media consisting of a buffered salt solution, thus removing the confounding effects of incubation or other sera-based products ^10,24,44-45.However, the isolation of the retinal tissue from surrounding tissues and the subsequent processing is challenging. Here, we present a method for the dissection and dissociation of retinal cells in Xenopus laevis that will be used to prepare primary cell cultures that will, in turn, be analyzed for calcium activity and gene expression at the resolution of single cells. While the topic presented in this paper is the analysis of spontaneous calcium transients, the technique is broadly applicable to a wide array of research questions and approaches (Figure 1).     

Ex vivo Culturing of Whole,Developing Drosophila Brains

We describe a method for ex vivo culturing of whole Drosophila brains. This can be used as a counterpoint to chronic genetic manipulations for investigating the cell biology and development of central brain structures by allowing acute pharmacological interventions and live imaging of cellular processes. As an example of the technique, prior work from our lab¹ has shown that a previously unrecognized subcellular compartment lies between the axonal and somatodendritic compartments of axons of the Drosophila central brain. The development of this compartment, referred to as the axon initial segment (AIS)², was shown genetically to depend on the neuron-specific cyclin-dependent kinase, Cdk5. We show here that ex vivo treatment of wild-type Drosophila larval brains with the Cdk5-specific pharmacological inhibitors roscovitine and olomoucine³ causes acute changes in actin organization, and in localization of the cell-surface protein Fasciclin 2, that mimic the changes seen in mutants that lack Cdk5 activity genetically.A second example of the ex vivo culture technique is provided for remodeling of the connections of embryonic mushroom body (MB) gamma neurons during metamorphosis from larva to adult. The mushroom body is the center of olfactory learning and memory in the fly⁴, and these gamma neurons prune their axonal and dendritic branches during pupal development and then re-extend branches at a later timepoint to establish the adult innervation pattern⁵. Pruning of these neurons of the MB has been shown to occur via local degeneration of neurite branches⁶, by a mechanism that is triggered by ecdysone, a steroid hormone, acting at the ecdysone receptor B1⁷, and that is dependent on the activity of the ubiquitin-proteasome system⁶. Our method of ex vivo culturing can be used to interrogate further the mechanism of developmental remodeling. We found that in the ex vivo culture setting, gamma neurons of the MB recapitulated the process of developmental pruning with a time course similar to that in vivo. It was essential, however, to wait until 1.5 hours after puparium formation before explanting the tissue in order for the cells to commit irreversibly to metamorphosis; dissection of animals at the onset of pupariation led to little or no metamorphosis in culture. Thus, with appropriate modification, the ex vivo culture approach can be applied to study dynamic as well as steady state aspects of central brain biology.     

Whole Mount Immunofluorescent Staining of the Neonatal Mouse Retina to Investigate Angiogenesis In vivo

Angiogenesis is the complex process of new blood vessel formation defined by the sprouting of new blood vessels from a pre-existing vessel network. Angiogenesis plays a key role not only in normal development of organs and tissues, but also in many diseases in which blood vessel formation is dysregulated, such as cancer, blindness and ischemic diseases. In adult life, blood vessels are generally quiescent so angiogenesis is an important target for novel drug development to try and regulate new vessel formation specifically in disease. In order to better understand angiogenesis and to develop appropriate strategies to regulate it, models are required that accurately reflect the different biological steps that are involved. The mouse neonatal retina provides an excellent model of angiogenesis because arteries, veins and capillaries develop to form a vascular plexus during the first week after birth. This model also has the advantage of having a two-dimensional (2D) structure making analysis straightforward compared with the complex 3D anatomy of other vascular networks. By analyzing the retinal vascular plexus at different times after birth, it is possible to observe the various stages of angiogenesis under the microscope. This article demonstrates a straightforward procedure for analyzing the vasculature of a mouse retina using fluorescent staining with isolectin and vascular specific antibodies.     

Live Cell Imaging of Primary Rat Neonatal Cardiomyocytes Following Adenoviral and Lentiviral Transduction Using Confocal Spinning Disk Microscopy

Primary rat neonatal cardiomyocytes are useful in basic in vitro cardiovascular research because they can be easily isolated in large numbers in a single procedure. Due to advances in microscope technology it is relatively easy to capture live cell images for the purpose of investigating cellular events in real time with minimal concern regarding phototoxicity to the cells. This protocol describes how to take live cell timelapse images of primary rat neonatal cardiomyocytes using a confocal spinning disk microscope following lentiviral and adenoviral transduction to modulate properties of the cell. The application of two different types of viruses makes it easier to achieve an appropriate transduction rate and expression levels for two different genes. Well focused live cell images can be obtained using the microscope’s autofocus system, which maintains stable focus for long time periods. Applying this method, the functions of exogenously engineered proteins expressed in cultured primary cells can be analyzed. Additionally, this system can be used to examine the functions of genes through the use of siRNAs as well as of chemical modulators.     

A System for Culturing Iris Pigment Epithelial Cells to Study Lens Regeneration in Newt

Salamanders like newt and axolotl possess the ability to regenerate many of its lost body parts such as limbs, the tail with spinal cord, eye, brain, heart, the jaw ¹. Specifically, newts are unique for its lens regeneration capability. Upon lens removal, IPE cells of the dorsal iris transdifferentiate to lens cells and eventually form a new lens in about a month ^2,3. This property of regeneration is never exhibited by the ventral iris cells. The regeneration potential of the iris cells can be studied by making transplants of the in vitro cultured IPE cells. For the culture, the dorsal and ventral iris cells are first isolated from the eye and cultured separately for a time period of 2 weeks (Figure 1). These cultured cells are reaggregated and implanted back to the newt eye. Past studies have shown that the dorsal reaggregate maintains its lens forming capacity whereas the ventral aggregate does not form a lens, recapitulating, thus the in vivo process (Figure 2) ^4,5. This system of determining regeneration potential of dorsal and ventral iris cells is very useful in studying the role of genes and proteins involved in lens regeneration.     

Use of LysoTracker to Detect Programmed Cell Death in Embryos and Differentiating Embryonic Stem Cells

Programmed cell death (PCD) occurs in adults to maintain normal tissue homeostasis and during embryological development to shape tissues and organs^1,2,6,7. During development, toxic chemicals or genetic alterations can cause an increase in PCD or change PCD patterns resulting in developmental abnormalities and birth defects^3-5. To understand the etiology of these defects, the study of embryos can be complemented with in vitro assays that use differentiating embryonic stem (ES) cells.Apoptosis is a well-studied form of PCD that involves both intrinsic and extrinsic signaling to activate the caspase enzyme cascade. Characteristic cell changes include membrane blebbing, nuclear shrinking, and DNA fragmentation. Other forms of PCD do not involve caspase activation and may be the end-result of prolonged autophagy. Regardless of the PCD pathway, dying cells need to be removed. In adults, the immune cells perform this function, while in embryos, where the immune system has not yet developed, removal occurs by an alternative mechanism. This mechanism involves neighboring cells (called "non-professional phagocytes") taking on a phagocytic role-they recognize the ''eat me'' signal on the surface of the dying cell and engulf it^8-10. After engulfment, the debris is brought to the lysosome for degradation. Thus regardless of PCD mechanism, an increase in lysosomal activity can be correlated with increased cell death.To study PCD, a simple assay to visualize lysosomes in thick tissues and multilayer differentiating cultures can be useful. LysoTracker dye is a highly soluble small molecule that is retained in acidic subcellular compartments such as the lysosome^11-13. The dye is taken up by diffusion and through the circulation. Since penetration is not a hindrance, visualization of PCD in thick tissues and multi-layer cultures is possible^12,13. In contrast, TUNEL (Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling) analysis¹⁴, is limited to small samples, histological sections, and monolayer cultures because the procedure requires the entry/permeability of a terminal transferase.In contrast to Aniline blue, which diffuses and is dissolved by solvents, LysoTracker Red DND-99 is fixable, bright, and stable. Staining can be visualized with standard fluorescent or confocal microscopy in whole-mount or section using aqueous or solvent-based mounting media^12,13. Here we describe protocols using this dye to look at PCD in normal and sonichedgehog null mouse embryos. In addition, we demonstrate analysis of PCD in differentiating ES cell cultures and present a simple quantification method. In summary, LysoTracker staining can be a great complement to other methods of detecting PCD.     

Laser-inflicted Injury of Zebrafish Embryonic Skeletal Muscle

Various experimental approaches have been used in mouse to induce muscle injury with the aim to study muscle regeneration, including myotoxin injections (bupivacaine, cardiotoxin or notexin), muscle transplantations (denervation-devascularization induced regeneration), intensive exercise, but also murine muscular dystrophy models such as the mdx mouse (for a review of these approaches see ¹). In zebrafish, genetic approaches include mutants that exhibit muscular dystrophy phenotypes (such as runzel² or sapje³) and antisense oligonucleotide morpholinos that block the expression of dystrophy-associated genes⁴. Besides, chemical approaches are also possible, e.g. with Galanthamine, a chemical compound inhibiting acetylcholinesterase, thereby resulting in hypercontraction, which eventually leads to muscular dystrophy⁵. However, genetic and pharmacological approaches generally affect all muscles within an individual, whereas the extent of physically inflicted injuries are more easily controlled spatially and temporally¹. Localized physical injury allows the assessment of contralateral muscle as an internal control. Indeed, we recently used laser-mediated cell ablation to study skeletal muscle regeneration in the zebrafish embryo⁶, while another group recently reported the use of a two-photon laser (822 nm) to damage very locally the plasma membrane of individual embryonic zebrafish muscle cells⁷.Here, we report a method for using the micropoint laser (Andor Technology) for skeletal muscle cell injury in the zebrafish embryo. The micropoint laser is a high energy laser which is suitable for targeted cell ablation at a wavelength of 435 nm. The laser is connected to a microscope (in our setup, an optical microscope from Zeiss) in such a way that the microscope can be used at the same time for focusing the laser light onto the sample and for visualizing the effects of the wounding (brightfield or fluorescence). The parameters for controlling laser pulses include wavelength, intensity, and number of pulses.Due to its transparency and external embryonic development, the zebrafish embryo is highly amenable for both laser-induced injury and for studying the subsequent recovery. Between 1 and 2 days post-fertilization, somitic skeletal muscle cells progressively undergo maturation from anterior to posterior due to the progression of somitogenesis from the trunk to the tail^{8, 9}. At these stages, embryos spontaneously twitch and initiate swimming. The zebrafish has recently been recognized as an important vertebrate model organism for the study of tissue regeneration, as many types of tissues (cardiac, neuronal, vascular etc.) can be regenerated after injury in the adult zebrafish^{10, 11}.     

Time-lapse Imaging of Mitosis After siRNA Transfection

Changes in cellular organization and chromosome dynamics that occur during mitosis are tightly coordinated to ensure accurate inheritance of genomic and cellular content. Hallmark events of mitosis, such as chromosome movement, can be readily tracked on an individual cell basis using time-lapse fluorescence microscopy of mammalian cell lines expressing specific GFP-tagged proteins. In combination with RNAi-based depletion, this can be a powerful method for pinpointing the stage(s) of mitosis where defects occur after levels of a particular protein have been lowered. In this protocol, we present a basic method for assessing the effect of depleting a potential mitotic regulatory protein on the timing of mitosis. Cells are transfected with siRNA, placed in a stage-top incubation chamber, and imaged using an automated fluorescence microscope. We describe how to use software to set up a time-lapse experiment, how to process the image sequences to make either still-image montages or movies, and how to quantify and analyze the timing of mitotic stages using a cell-line expressing mCherry-tagged histone H2B. Finally, we discuss important considerations for designing a time-lapse experiment. This strategy is complementary to other approaches and offers the advantages of 1) sensitivity to changes in kinetics that might not be observed when looking at cells as a population and 2) analysis of mitosis without the need to synchronize the cell cycle using drug treatments. The visual information from such imaging experiments not only allows the sub-stages of mitosis to be assessed, but can also provide unexpected insight that would not be apparent from cell cycle analysis by FACS.     

Quantitative Measurement of Invadopodia-mediated Extracellular Matrix Proteolysis in Single and Multicellular Contexts

Cellular invasion into local tissues is a process important in development and homeostasis. Malregulated invasion and subsequent cell movement is characteristic of multiple pathological processes, including inflammation, cardiovascular disease and tumor cell metastasis¹. Focalized proteolytic degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM) components in the epithelial or endothelial basement membrane is a critical step in initiating cellular invasion. In tumor cells, extensive in vitro analysis has determined that ECM degradation is accomplished by ventral actin-rich membrane protrusive structures termed invadopodia^2,3. Invadopodia form in close apposition to the ECM, where they moderate ECM breakdown through the action of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The ability of tumor cells to form invadopodia directly correlates with the ability to invade into local stroma and associated vascular components³. Visualization of invadopodia-mediated ECM degradation of cells by fluorescent microscopy using dye-labeled matrix proteins coated onto glass coverslips has emerged as the most prevalent technique for evaluating the degree of matrix proteolysis and cellular invasive potential^4,5. Here we describe a version of the standard method for generating fluorescently-labeled glass coverslips utilizing a commercially available Oregon Green-488 gelatin conjugate. This method is easily scaled to rapidly produce large numbers of coated coverslips. We show some of the common microscopic artifacts that are often encountered during this procedure and how these can be avoided. Finally, we describe standardized methods using readily available computer software to allow quantification of labeled gelatin matrix degradation mediated by individual cells and by entire cellular populations. The described procedures provide the ability to accurately and reproducibly monitor invadopodia activity, and can also serve as a platform for evaluating the efficacy of modulating protein expression or testing of anti-invasive compounds on extracellular matrix degradation in single and multicellular settings.     

Blastomere Explants to Test for Cell Fate Commitment During Embryonic Development

Fate maps, constructed from lineage tracing all of the cells of an embryo, reveal which tissues descend from each cell of the embryo. Although fate maps are very useful for identifying the precursors of an organ and for elucidating the developmental path by which the descendant cells populate that organ in the normal embryo, they do not illustrate the full developmental potential of a precursor cell or identify the mechanisms by which its fate is determined. To test for cell fate commitment, one compares a cell''s normal repertoire of descendants in the intact embryo (the fate map) with those expressed after an experimental manipulation. Is the cell''s fate fixed (committed) regardless of the surrounding cellular environment, or is it influenced by external factors provided by its neighbors? Using the comprehensive fate maps of the Xenopus embryo, we describe how to identify, isolate and culture single cleavage stage precursors, called blastomeres. This approach allows one to assess whether these early cells are committed to the fate they acquire in their normal environment in the intact embryo, require interactions with their neighboring cells, or can be influenced to express alternate fates if exposed to other types of signals.     

Culturing Microglia from the Neonatal and Adult Central Nervous System

Microglia are the resident macrophage-like cells of the central nervous system (CNS) and, as such, have critically important roles in physiological and pathological processes such as CNS maturation in development, multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injury. Microglia can be activated and recruited to action by neuronal injury or stimulation, such as axonal damage seen in MS or ischemic brain trauma resulting from stroke. These immunocompetent members of the CNS are also thought to have roles in synaptic plasticity under non-pathological conditions. We employ protocols for culturing microglia from the neonatal and adult tissues that are aimed to maximize the viable cell numbers while minimizing confounding variables, such as the presence of other CNS cell types and cell culture debris. We utilize large and easily discernable CNS components (e.g. cortex, spinal cord segments), which makes the entire process feasible and reproducible. The use of adult cells is a suitable alternative to the use of neonatal brain microglia, as many pathologies studied mainly affect the postnatal spinal cord. These culture systems are also useful for directly testing the effect of compounds that may either inhibit or promote microglial activation. Since microglial activation can shape the outcomes of disease in the adult CNS, there is a need for in vitro systems in which neonatal and adult microglia can be cultured and studied.