Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022:2431:145-161.
doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1990-2_7.

Microfluidic Neuromuscular Co-culture System for Tracking Cell-to-Cell Transfer and Axonal Transport of Labeled Proteins

Ariel Ionescu  1 , Eran Perlson  2   3
Affiliations

Microfluidic Neuromuscular Co-culture System for Tracking Cell-to-Cell Transfer and Axonal Transport of Labeled Proteins

Ariel Ionescu et al. Methods Mol Biol. 2022.

Abstract

The molecular communication mechanisms within the Motor Neurons (MN) distant axon and its soma, as well as between MN and their neighboring cells and extracellular environment are of keen interest for our understanding of neurodevelopment and neurodegenerative diseases. One tool that has significantly improved our ability to study such processes with high spatiotemporal resolution is microfluidic devices. Here we describe a step-by-step guide to the neuromuscular co-culturing procedure and demonstrate how to track trophic factors transmission from muscle-to-neuron and their transport along the axons.

Keywords: Axonal transport; BDNF; GDNF; Microfluidic chambers; Motor neurons; Neuromuscular junction; Skeletal muscles.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Ibáñez CF (2007) Message in a bottle: long-range retrograde signaling in the nervous system. Trends Cell Biol. 17:519–528 - DOI
    1. Harrington AW, Ginty DD (2013) Long-distance retrograde neurotrophic factor signalling in neurons. Nat Rev Neurosci 14:177–187. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3253 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Guedes-Dias P, Holzbaur ELF (2019) Axonal transport: driving synaptic function. Science 366(6462):eaaw9997. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw9997 . PMID: 31601744; PMCID: PMC6996143
    1. Surana S, Villarroel-Campos D, Lazo OM et al (2020) The evolution of the axonal transport toolkit. Traffic 21(1):13–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/tra.12710 . Epub 2019 Nov 28. PMID: 31670447
    1. Brenner D, Yilmaz R, Müller K et al (2018) Hot-spot KIF5A mutations cause familial ALS. Brain 141:688–697. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awx370 - DOI - PubMed - PMC

LinkOut - more resources