Chromatin immunoprecipitation in mouse hippocampal cells and tissues

Abstract

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) has been developed for studying protein-DNA interactions and has been extensively used for mapping the localization of posttranslationally modified histones, histone variants, transcription factors, or chromatin modifying enzymes at a given locus or on a genome-wide scale. ChIP methods have been modified and improved over the years to fit a variety of different cell types and tissues. Here, we present a detailed protocol for hippocampal ChIP, of both minced tissue and enzyme-separated hippocampal cells. This protocol enables to study chromatin-protein interactions in a specified population of hippocampal cells, allowing to study chromatin regulation in the central nervous system in a variety of conditions and disorders. Our assay has been developed for histone modifications but is suited for any chromatin binding protein for which specific ChIP-grade antibodies are available.