神经生物学

This chapter aims to encourage scientists and others interested in the use of animal models of disease – specifically, in the study of dementia – to engage in ethical reflection. It opens with a general discussion of the moral acceptability of animal use in research. Three ethical approaches are he ...

Early-onset familial and late-onset dementia of the Alzheimer-type account for the major proportion of cases of dementia and of neurodegenerative diseases in general. The number of affected individuals is likely to grow in the decades to come due to demographic changes and rising life expe ...

When establishing animal models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the aim is to mimic (certain aspects of) the human condition. However, species, strain, and gender specific features interfere with this goal. Only a few species, like primates, dogs, and bears, spontaneously develop histopatho ...

Dopaminergic neuronal cell degeneration is the principal characteristic feature of the neuropathology of Parkinson’s disease. Cultures of mesencephalic neurons are widely used as a source of dopaminergic neurons for the study of mechanisms implicated in dopaminergic cell dea ...

Glial cell activation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of various neurodegenerative disorders. This article presents a protocol for the preparation of cultures consisting of rat embryonic cortical neurons grown in the presence of cortical microglia, in which the glia are pr ...

The protocol described in this chapter covers the preparation and culture of enriched populations of microglia, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes from the cortex and spinal cord of neonatal rat and mouse. The procedure is based on the enzymatic digestion of tissue, followed by the culture of a ...

Neurons cultured from rodent central nervous system tissues represent an important tool in the study of neurodegenerative disease mechanisms and neuroregenerative processes, including the survival- and axon growth-promoting properties of neurotrophic factors. This cha ...

Neurons cultured from rodent central nervous system tissues represent an important tool in the study of neurodegenerative disease mechanisms and neuroregenerative processes, including the survival- and axon growth–promoting properties of neurotrophic factors. This cha ...

The mammalian brain contains undifferentiated, mitotically active, and multipotent neural stem/progenitor cells that in vivo contribute new neurons and glia to specific areas of the mature brain. When isolated under the appropriate conditions, these cells maintain in vitro the ab ...

In primary culture of the early postnatal cerebellum, glutamatergic granule cells are highly enriched and recapitulate many properties characteristic of developing granule neurons in vivo. For example, withdrawal of K+ from differentiated rat primary cerebellar granule neur ...

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious clinical problem that causes lifetime disabilities to victims and inflicting huge social burden on our society. One of the main lacunae in developing potential therapeutic measures in SCI is a lack of suitable animal models that could be comparable to clini ...

Neonatal sciatic nerve lesion is a useful experimental model for the study of neuronal cell death. Sciatic nerve transection or crush is the most frequently used approach to evaluate motoneuron loss in the lumbar enlargement of the spinal cord. Here we describe and illustrate the surgical pro ...

Brain microdialysis is an analytical technique used for the dynamic monitoring of brain neurochemistry in awake, freely moving animals. This technique requires the insertion of a small dialysis catheter, called a microdialysis probe, into a specific brain region, and its perfusion wi ...

Animal models of Parkinson’s disease are essential to explore pathophysiological hypotheses and to test new treatment options, including neurotrophic factors. Catecholaminergic neurotoxins used to generate such models are 6-hydroxydopamine and 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2 ...

During development of the nervous system, neurons extend axons over considerable distances in a highly stereospecific fashion in order to innervate their targets in an appropriate manner. This involves the recognition, by the axonal growth cone, of guidance cues that determine the path ...

Organotypic slices cultured for weeks in vitro represent an extremely valuable strategy for the investigation of the long-term properties of neuronal circuits under physiological and pathological conditions. Here, we describe how to prepare rat organotypic hippocampal slice ...

The concentration of nerve growth factor (NGF) is elevated in a number of inflammatory and autoimmune states in conjunction with increased accumulation of mast cells. Mast cells, which are of hematopoietic lineage, and NGF appear to be involved in neuroimmune interactions and tissue infl ...

Here, we describe a nanocarrier system that can transfer chitosan nanoparticles loaded with either small peptides such as the caspase inhibitor Z-DEVD-FMK or a large peptide like basic fibroblast growth factor across the blood–brain barrier. The nanoparticles are selectively dire ...

Although primary neuronal cell cultures are a valuable source of in vitro insight for many neurobiologists, all current gene expression technologies for these cells have significant drawbacks. Some of these limitations of current gene expression protocols include toxicity, tra ...

Fusion of fluorescent probes to axonally transported proteins represents an established approach that enables live imaging of axonal transport. In this approach, in vivo examination of fluorescent particle dynamics provides information about the length, directionality, and ...