Organotypic Brain Slice Cultures

2018 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. e59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Humpel
Keyword(s):  
Brain Slice ◽  
Organotypic Brain Slice ◽  
Brain Slice Cultures

scholarly journals Preparation of organotypic brain slice cultures for the study of Alzheimer’s disease

F1000Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 592
Author(s):  
Cara L. Croft ◽  
Wendy Noble
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Brain Slice ◽  
Synaptic Dysfunction ◽  
Slice Culture ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Culture Model ◽  
Organotypic Brain Slice ◽  
Brain Slice Cultures

Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia, is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterised by amyloid-beta deposits in extracellular plaques, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles of aggregated tau, synaptic dysfunction and neuronal death. There are no cures for AD and current medications only alleviate some disease symptoms. Transgenic rodent models to study Alzheimer’s mimic features of human disease such as age-dependent accumulation of abnormal beta-amyloid and tau, synaptic dysfunction, cognitive deficits and neurodegeneration. These models have proven vital for improving our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying AD and for identifying promising therapeutic approaches. However, modelling neurodegenerative disease in animals commonly involves aging animals until they develop harmful phenotypes, often coupled with invasive procedures. In vivo studies are also resource, labour, time and cost intensive. We have developed a novel organotypic brain slice culture model to study Alzheimer’ disease which brings the potential of substantially reducing the number of rodents used in dementia research from an estimated 20,000 per year. We obtain 36 brain slices from each mouse pup, considerably reducing the numbers of animals required to investigate multiple stages of disease. This tractable model also allows the opportunity to modulate multiple pathways in tissues from a single animal. We believe that this model will most benefit dementia researchers in the academic and drug discovery sectors. We validated the slice culture model against aged mice, showing that the molecular phenotype closely mimics that displayed in vivo, albeit in an accelerated timescale. We showed beneficial outcomes following treatment of slices with agents previously shown to have therapeutic effects in vivo, and we also identified new mechanisms of action of other compounds. Thus, organotypic brain slice cultures from transgenic mouse models expressing Alzheimer’s disease-related genes may provide a valid and sensitive replacement for in vivo studies that do not involve behavioural analysis.

Alpha-Synuclein is Involved in Manganese-Induced ER Stress via PERK Signal Pathway in Organotypic Brain Slice Cultures

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 399-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Xu ◽  
Fei Wang ◽  
Sheng-Wen Wu ◽  
Yu Deng ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Er Stress ◽  
Brain Slice ◽  
Alpha Synuclein ◽  
Signal Pathway ◽  
Organotypic Brain Slice ◽  
Brain Slice Cultures

Oxidative stress involvement in manganese-induced alpha-synuclein oligomerization in organotypic brain slice cultures

Toxicology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 305 ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Xu ◽  
Sheng-Wen Wu ◽  
Chun-Wei Lu ◽  
Yu Deng ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxidative Stress ◽  
Brain Slice ◽  
Alpha Synuclein ◽  
Organotypic Brain Slice ◽  
Brain Slice Cultures
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