Generation and Use of Primary Rat Cultures for Studies of the Effects of Ethanol

In vivo studies are ideal for identifying the phenomenology of ethanol toxicity and teratology. They are limited in being able to explore cellular and molecular mechanisms of action. Two types of culture models have proven to be very instructive: monolayer primary cultures of dissociated cells and organotypic slice cultures. Dissociated cell preparations have the advantage of being enriched populations of cells, whereas the organotypic cultures have the advantage of providing normal cell associations. Details for the methods used to generate these preparations are described. As ethanol is a volatile liquid, the success of a culture model depends upon stabilizing the ethanol content in the culture medium. A method to maintain the ethanol concentration is described.