Primary neuronal cultures represent an essential tool in the study of events related to peripheral neuropathies as they allow to isolate the affected cell types, often originating in complex tissues in which they account for only a few percentage of cells. Neuronal cultures also provide a powerful system to identifying or testing compounds with potential therapeutic effect in the treatment of those diseases. Proprioceptive neurons of the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) are the primary affected cells in Friedreich's Ataxia. This paper describes a model of primary cultures of DRG sensory neurons in which there is an induced the loss of the frataxin protein. THis model can alleviate the issues related to the complexity of DRG tissues and low amount of sensory neuron material in adult mouse. The authors provide a protocol of detailed and optimized methods to obtain high yield of healthy mouse DRG sensory neuron in culture.
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