Neuronal Cultures as Experimental Systems

Abstract

Whereas monolayer, neuronal cell culture techniques have made, and continue to make, a major contribution to our understanding of the vertebrate nervous system (Fischbach and Nelson, 1977), little progress has been made using invertebrate cell cultures, which remain in a relatively primitive state (Beadle and Hicks, 1985). However, during the last few years a small number of invertebrate culture systems have been developed in an attempt to solve specific neurobiological problems for which cell culture techniques offer the best hope of success. For example, an in vitro preparation of snail neurones has been developed to study the mechanisms underlying neuronal growth (Wong et al., 1981), and cultures of Aplysia and leech neurones have been used to investigate the formation and specificity of synaptic connections (Ready and Nicholls, 1979; Camardo et al., 1983). Similarly, insect neuronal cultures have been developed to facilitate pharmacological studies of neurotransmitters and their receptors (Usherwood et al., 1980; Lees et al., 1983) and to permit a genetic analysis of neuronal function (Wu et al., 1983a). All of these culture preparations have been developed specifically to circumvent many of the difficulties that arise during neurobiological investigations of the invertebrate nervous system because of its structural organisation. This chapter outlines the progress that has been made in the use of invertebrate culture preparations for solving specific neurobiological problems, and attempts to demonstrate that invertebrate neurones in vitro resemble their in situ counterparts sufficiently to warrant their use as experimental models of the intact nervous system.