Name: preparation of primary mixed glial cultures from adult mouse spinal cord tissue
Uploaded: 2016-11-19T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Preparation of Primary Mixed Glial Cultures from Adult Mouse Spinal Cord Tissue at JoVE.com

Adult spinal cord mixed cultures were first developed using rats with grant support from an NIH/NIDA R01 award (PI De Leo) and an NIH T32 training grant (PI Green). These methods were further adapted for mouse spinal cords with support from the following grants: NIH/NIDA 5K01DA023503 (PI Cao), NIH/NINDS 5R21NS066130 (PI Cao), and NIH/NIGMS P20GM103643 (PI Meng). The authors would also like to thank Dr. Alejandro M. S. Mayer, Department of Pharmacology, Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, for his technical help in obtaining microglia-rich mixed glial cells.

The following protocol was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at the University of New England. The following protocol is for preparing glial cultures from 4 adult mouse spinal cords.
1. Preparation of Solutions in a Culture Hood under Aseptic Conditions
<ol>
	<li>Prepare culture media: complete Dulbecco&#39;s modification of Eagle&#39;s media (cDMEM) containing DMEM (with 4.5 g/L glucose), 10% Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS), 2 mM L-glutamine, 100 IU/mL penicillin,...

<ol>
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It is critical to perform all steps-including the media changing schedule-in a consistent manner in order to obtain reproducible results between experiments. The following steps are particularly critical in obtaining excellent quality adult mixed glia.
The enzymatic digestion is an important aspect of this protocol. It is crucial that the tissue pieces are well-digested in order to obtain a single cell suspension. However, over-digestion will result in significantly fewer cells. Each lab needs...

Chronic pain is a serious health problem that affects approximately 100 million adults in the United States, with an estimated annual cost of up to $635 billion1. Mounting evidence has indicated a significant contribution of spinal cord glial cells in the development of neuropathic pain, one of the most devastating kinds of chronic pain2. A proper in vitro culture system would help significantly in further investigating the roles of glial cells at the cellular and molecular levels.
Currently, the in vitro glial culture systems utilized by researchers include mainly glial cells derived from cortical tissues of neonatal mouse or rat brains and immortalized glial cell lines derived from neonatal mouse or rat primary glial cells. Neonatal cells contain significant numbers of undifferentiated cells that can be further differentiated into glial cells (mainly astrocytes and microglia), thus providing abundant cells for experimental usage3. However, our previous study has shown that neonatal brain glial cells responded significantly differently from adult spinal cord glial cells upon lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. For example, interleukin (IL)-4 displayed enhanced inhibitory effects on LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in adult rat spinal cord glia compared to neonatal brain glia4. Furthermore, the profiles of chemokine production upon stimulation by a neuropeptide, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), are unarguably different between neonatal mouse brain glia (methods described in Ref. 5) and adult mouse spinal cord glia (Figure 1). Established cell lines are easy to use and maintain and can provide a large number of cells in a short time period. In general, immortalized cell lines are generated either using a virus-mediated immortalization system (such as the widely-used microglial cell line BV2)6, 7 or following the identification of spontaneous transformation (such as the astrocyte cell line C8-D1A and microglial cell line C8-B4)8, 9. Cell lines are excellent in studying the molecular characteristics of astrocytes and microglia individually; however, the results obtained from cell lines always require further validation in primary cells or in&#160;in vivo conditions. It should also be noted that there has not been a report of a glial cell line that is derived from a rodent spinal cord glia.
To help&#160;investigating&#160;the role of spinal cord glial cells in the development of neuropathic pain, a culture system that is derived from the adult mouse spinal cord has been developed by adapting a previously-reported method used to generate adult rat mixed glial cultures4, 5. The mouse spinal cord glial culture was further refined recently10 and is described in more detail in this article. Adult spinal cord mixed glial cultures can be established with a mouse from selected strains that fit the needs of the particular study, and cells can be maintained in culture for up to 21 d post initiation of the culture. This method can be used in neuropathic pain studies, as well as in investigations of various neurological diseases that involve pathological changes within the spinal cord, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated sensory neuropathy, and multiple sclerosis (MS).

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="2053">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="24">
			<td height="24" style="height:24px;width:489px;">Dulbecco&#8217;s modification of Eagle&#8217;s media (DMEM) with 4.5g/L glucose</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">Lonza</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">12-709F</td>
			<td style="width:1168px;">The cDMEM media is a standard, widely used culture media. Individual researcher can decide where to purchase the DMEM and all other component used to make cDMEM media.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="24">
			<td height="24" style="height:24px;">L-Glutamine (100x)</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">Lonza</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">17-605E</td>
			<td>The L-glutamine is a standard, widely used component for various culture media. Individual researcher can decide where to purchase L-glutamine.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="24">
			<td height="24" style="height:24px;width:489px;">Antibiotic-Antimycotic Solution (100x)</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">Corning-Mediatech</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">30-004-CI</td>
			<td>This is a combination of penicillin, streptomycin and Amphotericin formulated to contain 10,000 units/ml penicillin G, 10 mg/ml streptomycin sulfate and 25 &#181;g/ml amphotericin B. Individual researcher can decide where to purchase individual component.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="24">
			<td height="24" style="height:24px;">2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME)</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">M3148</td>
			<td>A BioReagent, suitable for cell culture, molecular biology and electrophoresis.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="24">
			<td height="24" style="height:24px;">Papain dissociation system</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">Worthington Biochemical Corporation</td>
			<td>LK003150</td>
			<td>Individual components of this kit can be purchased separately.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="24">
			<td height="24" style="height:24px;width:489px;">Percoll</td>
			<td>GE Health Care</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">17-0891-01</td>
			<td>Percoll is sold as sterile solution. Undiluted Percoll can be re-autoclaved if needed.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="24">
			<td height="24" style="height:24px;width:489px;">Lab-line incubator/shaker&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">Barstead/Lab-line</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">MaxQ4000&#160;</td>
			<td>This is the incubator/shaker we have currently. Other types of shakers can be used instead.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="24">
			<td height="24" style="height:24px;width:489px;">Lipopolysaccharides, Salmonella Minnesota Re595&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">L-9764</td>
			<td>Other strains of LPS can also induce glial responses. The magnitude of the responses may vary.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:489px;">Mouse IL-6 DuoSet ELISA&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">DY406</td>
			<td>Each individual Researcher can select the ELISA kit he or she prefers.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:489px;">Mouse TNF-alpha DuoSet ELISA</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">DY410</td>
			<td>Each individual Researcher can select the ELISA kit he or she prefers.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:489px;">Mouse IP-10 (CXCL10) DuoSet ELISA</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">DY466</td>
			<td>Each individual Researcher can select the ELISA kit he or she prefers.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:489px;">Mouse MCP-1 (CCL2) ELISA Opteia set</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">BD Biosciences</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">555260</td>
			<td>Each individual Researcher can select the ELISA kit he or she prefers.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:489px;">Mouse chemokine Q-Plex</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">Quansys Biosciences</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">120251MS</td>
			<td>This product was available for in-house assay at the time. Instead, we sent out samples to the manufacturer for analysis.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:489px;">APC-anti-mouse-CD45 (clone 30-F11)</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">eBioscience</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">17-0451</td>
			<td>Antibody of the same clone but from other vendors can be used.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:489px;">FITC-anti-mouse-CD11b (clone M1/70)</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">eBioscience</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">11-0112</td>
			<td>Antibody of the same clone but from other vendors can be used.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:489px;">Accuri C6 flow cytometer</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">BD Biosciences</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">BD Accuri C6&#160;</td>
			<td>Each individual Researcher can use any flow cytometer he or she prefers.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:489px;">FlowJo software</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">Tree Star, Inc.</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">FlowJo7.6.5</td>
			<td>Each individual Researcher can use any analysis software he or she prefers.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

preparation of primary mixed glial cultures from adult mouse spinal cord tissue

It has been well-accepted that spinal cord glial responses contribute significantly to the development of neuropathic pain. Tremendous information regarding glial activities at the cellular and molecular levels has been obtained through in vitro cell culture systems. The in vitro systems utilized, mainly include primary glia derived from neonatal brain cortical tissue and immortalized cell lines. However, these systems may not reflect the characteristics of spinal cord glial cells in vivo. In order to further investigate the roles of spinal cord glial cells in the development of peripheral nerve injury-induced neuropathic pain using a culture system that better reflects the in vivo condition, our laboratory has developed a method to establish primary spinal cord mixed glial cultures from adult mice. Briefly, spinal cords are collected from adult mice and processed through papain digestion followed by myelin removal with a density-gradient medium. Single cell suspensions are cultured in complete Dulbecco&#39;s modified Eagle media (cDMEM) supplemented with 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME) at 35.9 oC. These culture conditions were optimized specifically for the growth of mixed glial cells. Under these conditions, cells are ready to be used for experimentation between 12 - 14 d&#160;(cells are usually in log phase during this time) after the establishment of the culture (D 0) and can be kept in culture conditions up to D 21. This culture system can be used to investigate the responses of spinal cord glial cells upon stimulation with various substances and agents. Besides neuropathic pain, this system can be used to study glial responses in other diseases that involve pathological changes of spinal cord glial cells.

This method can be used to prepare mixed glial cells from both mice and rats. The average total cell number per well in a 12-well plate on D 12 post-initiation of the culture should be relatively stable, with around 100,000 cells per well when cells are derived from mouse spinal cords. Glial cells obtained from this method can be used in experiments that are designed to examine adult spinal cord glial responses upon administration of substances and agents of interest. Figure 3&#16...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Preparation of Primary Mixed Glial Cultures from Adult Mouse Spinal Cord Tissue at JoVE.com

Preparation of Primary Mixed Glial Cultures from Adult Mouse Spinal Cord Tissue

The development of neuropathic pain involves pathological changes of spinal cord glial cells. A reliable glial culture system derived from adult spinal cord tissue and designed for studying these cells in vitro is lacking. Therefore, we show here how&#160;to establish primary mixed glial cultures from adult mouse spinal cord tissue.

It has been well-accepted that spinal cord glial responses contribute significantly to the development of neuropathic pain. Tremendous information ...

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