Culture of Mouse Giant Central Nervous System Synapses and Application for Imaging and Electrophysiological Analyses

Dimitar Dimitrov; Laurent Guillaud; Kohgaku Eguchi; Tomoyuki Takahashi

doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-7571-6_15

Culture of Mouse Giant Central Nervous System Synapses and Application for Imaging and Electrophysiological Analyses

Methods Mol Biol. 2018;1727:201-215. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7571-6_15.

Authors

Dimitar Dimitrov¹, Laurent Guillaud², Kohgaku Eguchi³, Tomoyuki Takahashi²

Affiliations

¹ Cellular and Molecular Synaptic Function Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan. ddimitrov@oist.jp.
² Cellular and Molecular Synaptic Function Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan.
³ Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria.

PMID: 29222783
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7571-6_15

Abstract

Primary neuronal cell culture preparations are widely used to investigate synaptic functions. This chapter describes a detailed protocol for the preparation of a neuronal cell culture in which giant calyx-type synaptic terminals are formed. This chapter also presents detailed protocols for utilizing the main technical advantages provided by such a preparation, namely, labeling and imaging of synaptic organelles and electrophysiological recordings directly from presynaptic terminals.

Keywords: Calyx of held; Capacitance measurements; Giant synapse; Neuronal cell culture; Neurotrophin-3; Synapse imaging; Synaptic vesicles.

MeSH terms

Animals
Cell Culture Techniques / methods*
Cells, Cultured
Electrophysiological Phenomena
Mice
Molecular Imaging
Neurons / cytology*
Synapses / physiology
Synapses / ultrastructure*