Understanding the functional response to CNS drug candidates in a more complex in vitro environment can more efficiently facilitate drug discovery development. Creative Biolabs offers organotypic brain slice assays as a low-throughput validation model of your test compound in a complex, multicellular approach.

Background

Organotypic slice cultures of brain or spinal cord have been a longstanding tool in neuroscience research. However, the cellular and molecular complexity of the brain and spinal cord has brought great challenges for ex vivo studies of the central nervous system (CNS). Although many methods have been developed, more or less, they have several limitations. Cultured primary mouse microglia are highly phenotypically distinct from the resident microglia in the brain. The human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived mini-brain organoids still face many technical and conceptual challenges. Furthermore, iPSC-derived brain organoids are not widely accessible to the broader research community due to costs and complexity.

As a relatively straightforward, inexpensive, and easily implemented method, organotypic brain slices are widely applied to model neuronal development and regeneration as well as neuronal pathology concerning stroke, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In the future, it may serve as a bridging technology between cell culture and in vivo experiments for the development and evaluation of novel therapeutic targets and strategies.

Fig.1 Image from cortical organotypic tissue culture (scalebar 50 μm). (Andersson, 2016)

Organotypic Brain Slice

• Brain Region
• Single brain region
  Hippocampus
  Cortex
  Cerebellum
  Thalamus
• Co-cultures of brain regions
• Entire sagittal and coronal brain slice cultures
• Measurement of Cell Death and Viability
  Use propidium iodide or other similar stains to stain living or dead cells by measuring the release of lactate dehydrogenase into the culture medium or by measuring metabolic activity.
• Types of Brain Slice
• Rodent brain
  The majority of brain slice cultures are produced from mice or rats. Usually, on the 12th day postnatal, cytoarchitecture of this period is established, the brain is larger and easier to manipulate and neuronal cells are likely to survive explantation. These cultures also display high levels of plasticity and therefore show resistance to the mechanical trauma incurred when neuronal processes are cut.
• Human brain
  Except for rodent brains, cultures prepared from human brain biopsies, post-mortem brains of embryonic brains have also been reported. These cultures have some limitations including but not limited to ethical considerations, availability of tissue, and post-mortem delay affecting the success of the culture.

Advantages of Organotypic Brain Slice Assay

• Retain the three-dimensional organization in culture and representative of the area from which they are derived.
• Mimics the development of the brain in vivo.
• An alternative to some in vivo experiments thereby reducing the number of animals required for certain studies.

Featured Service

• Rodent Brain Slice Assay
• Ex Vivo Human Brain Slice Assay

Except for brain slice assays, Creative Biolabs also tailors the assay readouts to suit you, which include immunohistochemical-based analysis or gene expression studies using qPCR or NGS techniques.

Creative Biolabs has a strong academic background in neuroscience. We offer robust data to drive confident decision-making throughout your Brain-Immune-Gut Based Integrative Study Research. If you are interested in our organotypic brain slice assays, please feel free to contact us right now.

Reference

1. Croft, C.L.; et al. Organotypic brain slice cultures to model neurodegenerative proteinopathies. Mol Neurodegeneration. 2019, 14: 45 (2019).
2. Andersson, M.; et al. Optogenetic control of human neurons in organotypic brain cultures. Sci Rep. 2016.

For Research Use Only | Not For Clinical Use