Study of the method of spinal cord neuron culture in Sprague–Dawley rats

This study explores methods for culturing spinal cord neurons (SPNs) in vitro, which is important for understanding spinal cord injury and repair mechanisms at a molecular level. The researchers tested different techniques—Ara-C treatment, differential velocity adhesion, and natural growth in neuron-specific medium—to purify and culture SPNs from neonatal rats. They found that natural growth in a neuron-specific medium yielded the highest purity of SPNs, making it a suitable method for in vitro cell experiments related to spinal cord research.

• 1
  Ara-C treatment, intended to inhibit the growth of non-neuronal cells, also negatively affected the neurons themselves, showing toxicity and inhibiting their growth.
• 2
  The differential velocity adhesion method, which aimed to separate cells based on their adhesion rates, was not effective in distinguishing between neurons and other cell types.
• 3
  Natural growth in a neuron-specific medium (Neurobasal-A) resulted in higher purity SPN cultures, with cells from days 12-18 being suitable for experiments.