Recreating mouse cortico-hippocampal neuronal circuit in microfluidic devices to study BDNF axonal transport upon glucocorticoid treatment

STAR Protoc. 2021 Mar 8;2(1):100382. doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100382. eCollection 2021 Mar 19.

Abstract

BDNF levels are reduced in the chronically stressed brain, in the area of hippocampus. Part of the hippocampal BDNF is provided by neuronal projection of the entorhinal cortex. Studying the cortico-hippocampal transport of BDNF in vivo is technically difficult. Here, we describe a protocol that reproduces mouse cortico-hippocampal circuit in vitro by plating neurons on the microfluidic devices and infecting the neurons with virus-encoding BDNF-mCherry, which allows investigation of the effects of elevated corticosterone levels on BDNF axonal transport. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Agasse et al. (2020).

Keywords: Cell biology; Cell culture; Cell isolation; Cell-based assays; Neuroscience.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Axonal Transport / physiology*
  • Axons / physiology
  • Brain / physiology
  • Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / metabolism*
  • Corticosterone / pharmacology
  • Entorhinal Cortex / physiology
  • Glucocorticoids / pharmacology
  • Hippocampus / physiology
  • Lab-On-A-Chip Devices
  • Mice
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / methods*
  • Microfluidics / methods
  • Nerve Net / physiology
  • Neurons / metabolism
  • Protein Transport / physiology

Substances

  • Bdnf protein, mouse
  • Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
  • Glucocorticoids
  • Corticosterone