Analytical Approaches for Investigating Apoptosis and Other Biochemical Events in Compartmented Cultures of Sympathetic Neurons

The compartmented culture model utilizing rat sympathetic neurons and sensory neurons is gaining wide use in investigations of neurotrophic factor signaling and axonal transport. Previous chapters have focused on the preparation of compartmented cultures. Here we focus on analytical approaches that we have used with compartmented cultures that can be used to investigate apoptosis, intracellular signaling, and other issues. Techniques used for incubating the cultures with radioisotopes and other agents, harvesting cell extracts from the cultures, using the cultures for histochemistry, and producing cultures from individual transgenic mouse pups are described.