Microglia repetitively isolated from in vitro mixed glial cultures retain their initial phenotype.

In vitro culture of rodent microglia is a common system used to model proinflammatory changes in the brain. However, typical postnatal brain isolation protocols are time consuming and cell numbers acquired are often a rate-limiting factor for experimental progress. Large studies that rely on the use of primary microglia can, therefore, require excessive numbers of animals at considerable expense, additional technical support and culture incubator space. Although the addition of mitogens such as macrophage colony-stimulating factor, granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor, and epidermal growth factor to the cultures can facilitate a higher yield, this adds additional expense and likely alters the microglial phenotype. We have defined a simple, inexpensive modification of our standard culture protocol that allows us to repetitively isolate microglia. In order to define a method for improving microglia yield, we utilized our standard mixed glial culture preparation derived from postnatal day 1-3 mouse brains. After isolating microglia from mixed cultures at 14 days in vitro, we added fresh media to the cultures for an additional 7 and 14 days to monitor microglial proliferation. We acquired a constant number of cells at each successive time point although the numbers were reduced from the first isolation. More importantly, in order to determine if our successive microglia isolates differed phenotypically we characterized several parameters of function. We compared their ability to secrete the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha after LPS stimulation. We also contrasted the phagocytic ability, morphology, and specific immunoreactivity (CD11b, CD68, CD45 and MHC II) of the culture ages. Our data demonstrate that microglia can be obtained from extended-time cultures provided periodic isolation is performed. Moreover, the cells retain a comparable in vitro phenotype. This demonstrates that cells from all ages can be combined for any given study. These findings are a viable and inexpensive way to increase and extend the microglial yield without increasing the number of animals used or adding costly mitogens. This method will be particularly useful for the preparation of microglia cultures from limited transgenic colonies.