Ex vivo culture of isolated zebrafish whole brain.

We have succeeded in culturing whole zebrafish brains ex vivo for 1 week. While isolated cells and tissue slices have previously been employed for neurobiological studies, these techniques are limited, because while local networks may be preserved, their original context in the whole brain is lost. Culture of the whole brain would facilitate the study of cells and systems within an intact brain infrastructure. Our culture method entailed isolating the whole brain and placing it on a sterile and porous membrane, after which it was maintained with a conditioned medium in a six-well plate in a CO2 incubator at 28.5 degrees C. Whole brains cultured by this simple method were relatively unaltered in terms of their morphology, cytoarchitecture, immunohistochemistry and ability to transport horse radish peroxidase (HRP). This method of cultivation may be very useful for neurobiological research.