Abstract
In the central nervous system, neuronal cells interact with glial cells and functionally differentiate, a process which can not be reproduced in cell culture. Identification of the novel factors involved in the growth and/or rescue of the differentiated neuronal cells has been impeded by a lack of methods for selecting the genes. In this study, hippocampal slices of a 5-week old rat were transiently introduced with plasmid DNA carrying anti-apoptotic rat bcl-2 or bcl-x cDNA by a particle-bombardment transfection procedure. The plasmid DNAs were expected not to be digested in living cells. Intact plasmid DNAs were recovered by PCR amplification from the slices with bcl-2 or bcl-x cDNAs but not from slices with empty vector or bax cDNA that promotes cell death. This study proposed that a technical combination of organotypic culture and particle-bombardment transfection is profitable for identifying novel genes that promote the survival of neuronal cells. Copyright (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 62-66 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Neuroscience Letters |
Volume | 272 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 3 1999 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan.
Keywords
- Apoptosis
- Bax
- Bcl-2
- Bcl-x(L)
- Hippocampal slice
- Neurodegeneration
- Particle-bombardment transfection
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuroscience (all)