Microinjection into cultured hippocampal neurons: a straightforward approach for controlled cellular delivery of nucleic acids, peptides and antibodies.

Functional studies in neurons often require controllable simultaneous delivery of different molecules to individual cells within networks. Microinjection represents a suitable and alternative method to deliver cDNAs, oligonucleotides, siRNAs, peptides or antibodies for expression, expression knockdown or loss-of-function studies, respectively. Moreover, molecules can be systematically applied to individual neurons in a controlled manner without affecting neighbouring cells. Establishment of microinjection is often complicated and time consuming. Here we describe a simple and reliable protocol for molecular cell biologists to establish injection of various molecules (ng to microg range) to living neurons in a reasonable period of time.