Cold Spring Harbor Protocols Features Tissue Culture Methods For Immune Cells And Neurons

Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 03 Dec 2008 - 6:00 PST

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The complexity of vital organ systems makes them difficult to study in living organisms. Tissue culture methods for specific cell types allow researchers to break these systems down into component parts that can be readily manipulated and observed. This month's issue of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols features two articles detailing experimental culture methods for cells from the immune system and the nervous system.

Bone Marrow-Derived Macrophages (BMM): Isolation and Applications, from Bo Porse and colleagues at the University of Copenhagen, describes the derivation and growth of Bone Marrow-Derived Macrophages. Macrophages are specialized cells that carry out numerous tasks in the immune system such as phagocytosis, antigen presentation, cytokine production and migration. Cultured cells can be used to study these functions and to perform assays for gene expression, gene function and interaction with microbes. The protocol is freely accessible on the website for Cold Spring Harbor Protocols .

Primary cultures of granule neurons from the cerebellum provide an excellent model system for molecular and cell biological studies of neuronal development and function. Many fundamental insights into the processes of neuronal apoptosis, migration, and differentiation in the mammalian central nervous system have come from investigating granule neurons in vitro. Azad Bonni's laboratory at Harvard University provides Cultures of Cerebellar Granule Neurons, a protocol for isolating and culturing these cells. This method is freely accessible on the website for. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols.

About Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

Cold Spring Harbor Protocols is a monthly peer-reviewed journal of methods used in a wide range of biology laboratories. It is structured to be highly interactive, with each protocol cross-linked to related methods, descriptive information panels, and illustrative material to maximize the total information available to investigators. Each protocol is clearly presented and designed for easy use at the bench-complete with reagents, equipment, and recipe lists. Life science researchers can access the entire collection via institutional site licenses, and can add their suggestions and comments to further refine the techniques.

Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press is an internationally renowned publisher of books, journals, and electronic media, located on Long Island, New York. Since 1933, it has furthered the advance and spread of scientific knowledge in all areas of genetics and molecular biology, including cancer biology, plant science, bioinformatics, and neurobiology. It is a division of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an innovator in life science research and the education of scientists, students, and the public.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press