UNC Neuroscience Center

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Neuroscience

Use of Pre-Assembled Plastic Microfluidic Chips for Compartmentalizing Primary Murine Neurons

Tharkika Nagendran^1,2, Valerie Poole³, Joseph Harris³, Anne Marion Taylor^1,2,3

¹UNC Neuroscience Center, ²UNC/NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, UNC, ³Xona Microfluidics, LLC

This protocol describes the use of plastic chips to culture and compartmentalize primary murine neurons. These chips are preassembled, user-friendly, and compatible with high-resolution, live, and fluorescence imaging. This protocol describes how to plate rat hippocampal neurons within these chips and perform fluidic isolation, axotomy and immunostaining.

Neuroscience

Compartmentalization of Human Stem Cell-Derived Neurons within Pre-Assembled Plastic Microfluidic Chips

Smita R. Paranjape^1,2, Tharkika Nagendran^1,2, Valerie Poole³, Joseph Harris³, Anne Marion Taylor^1,2,3

¹UNC Neuroscience Center, ²UNC/NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, ³Xona Microfluidics, LLC

This protocol demonstrates the use of compartmentalized microfluidic chips, injection molded in a cyclic olefin copolymer to cultured neurons differentiated from human stem cells. These chips are preassembled and easier-to-use than traditional compartmentalized poly(dimethylsiloxane) devices. Multiple common experimental paradigms are described here, including viral labeling, fluidic isolation, axotomy, and immunostaining.