Organotypic spinal cord culture using mice]

Amyotrophic lateral scleorsis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, which predominantly affects both upper and lower motor neurons. ALS is usually fatal within a few years after clinical onset. An organotypic slice culture of rat spinal cord, in which glutamate toxicity induces slow loss of spinal motoneurons, has been used for preclinical drug screening for ALS. In this report, we modified the conventional slice culture to put mouse spinal cords to use, as an alternative in vitro model of ALS. L-trans pyrrolidine 2, 4-dicarboxylic acid (PDC), an inhibitor of glutamate uptake, induced slow loss of spinal motoneurons in anterior horns, whereas small neurons in posterior horns were relatively preserved. This technique using mouse allows us to use transgenic and knockout mice. In addition to glutamate toxicity, many other mechanisms including oxidative stress and neurofilamentous disorganization are also considered to be involved in development of this devastating disease. Thus, a better in vitro model of ALS is strongly anticipated. At present, we are making efforts to apply this technique to establish a better in vitro model using spinal cord from transgenic ALS model mice, where spontaneous loss of spinal motoneurons will be observed.