Astrocyte responses to dorsal root ganglia in 3-dimensional co-culture models

Astrocyte responses to dorsal-root ganglia in 3-dimensional co-culture

Role of a voltage-sensitive calcium channel blocker on inhibition of apoptosis in sensory neurons of cultured dorsal root ganglia in adult rat

Introduction: Under pathological conditions, abnormal increase in intracellular calcium concentrations is believed to induce cell death. In the present study, a voltage-sensitive calcium channel blocker (loperamide hydrochloride) was used to investigate its role in inhibition of apoptosis in sensory neurons of cultured spinal dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Methods: L5 DRG from adult rats were di...

Engineering an integrated cellular interface in three-dimensional hydrogel cultures permits monitoring of reciprocal astrocyte and neuronal responses.

This study reports a new type of three-dimensional (3D) tissue model for studying interactions between cell types in collagen hydrogels. The aim was to create a 3D cell culture model containing separate cell populations in close proximity without the presence of a mechanical barrier, and demonstrate its relevance to modeling the axon growth-inhibitory cellular interfaces that develop in the cen...

Characterization of in vitro transcriptional responses of dorsal root ganglia cultured in the presence and absence of blastema cells from regenerating salamander limbs

During salamander limb regeneration, nerves provide signals that induce the formation of a mass of proliferative cells called the blastema. To better understand these signals, we developed a blastema-dorsal root ganglia (DRG) co-culture model system to test the hypothesis that nerves differentially express genes in response to cues provided by the blastema. DRG with proximal and distal nerve tr...

Collagen as Adherent Substratum and Inducer of Dorsal Root Ganglia Outgrowth

Neurite outgrowth from dorsal root ganglion (DRG) explants is a method of evaluating neurotrophic activity of growth factors. When complete medium containing collagen was supplemented with nerve growth factor (NGF) DRG outgrowth was observed after 18 h. In the absence of NGF and in the presence of collagen, the DRG outgrowth took place after 72 h. In wells not supplemented with collagen gel in ...