Method for shipping live cultures of dissociated rat hippocampal neurons

Primary neuronal cell culture is a powerful research tool for studies of cellular and molecular neurobiology, and the development of methods for manipulating DNA expression has provided new opportunities to exploit these in vitro models for mechanistic studies. However, because of the specialized equipment and training required to set up primary neuronal cell cultures of consistently high quality, and the need for multiple cultures to optimize transfection parameters for different experimental applications, this model system is often not practical for non-routine use. One solution is to collaborate with a laboratory that routinely cultures primary neurons, but currently this is not feasible if the collaborating laboratories are distant from each other. We describe a method that allows laboratories with the requisite tissue culture expertise to ship live primary cultures of transfected neuronal cells for subsequent experimentation in the receiving laboratory.