Culture of chick embryo neural retina in serum-free medium : Expression of cholinergic proteins

Dissociated retinal cells from 8-day-old chick embryos were cultivated in serum-containing and in defined serum-free media. Under the latter conditions, and using polylysine as a substrate, the proliferation of glial cells was almost completely prevented, and pure (>90%) neuronal cultures could be maintained for up to 7 days in vitro. The specific but not the total activities of choline acetyltransferase and of the nicotinic and the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor were increased under serum-free culture conditions. Autoradiographic studies with [¹²⁵I]α-bungarotoxin, a selective ligand for nicotinic cholinergic receptors, showed that serum-free culture conditions may constitute a useful tool for identifying biochemically different types of retinal neurons in tissue culture.