Culture of neurons from postmortem rat brain.

Live neurons from pathological postmortem brains may provide a better model to study the molecular and cellular events associated with neurodegenerative disease. The aim of this study was to culture neurons from adult rat brain, 1 and 2 h postmortem, in typical normothermic autopsy conditions. We reliably cultured cells up to 2 h postmortem, in high yield, with neuron morphology, staining for neuronal markers (microtubule-associated protein 2, tau, and neurofilament 200). These neuron-like cells lacked glial marker staining (OX42 and glial fibrillary acidic protein). Our results suggest that neurons may be cultured from autopsy donors who have died either with or without a neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer or Parkinson disease.