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Rapid, sensitive, and simple method for quantification of both neurotoxic and neurotrophic effects of NMDA on cultured cerebellar granule cells
Author(s) -
Didier M.,
Heaulme M.,
Soubrié P.,
Bockaert J.,
Pin J.P.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of neuroscience research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.72
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1097-4547
pISSN - 0360-4012
DOI - 10.1002/jnr.490270105
Subject(s) - nmda receptor , granule (geology) , fluorescein , lysis , cerebellum , fluorescence microscope , chemistry , granule cell , glutamate receptor , fluorescence , biophysics , biology , neuroscience , dentate gyrus , biochemistry , central nervous system , paleontology , physics , receptor , quantum mechanics
A simple and sensitive method adapted from the staining of living cells with fluorescein diacetate was developed to rapidly estimate the number of living cells remaining in a culture dish 24 hr after a few min of NMDA treatment of cerebellar neurons. This method consists of the measurement, after cell lysis, of the total amount of fluorescein produced from fluorescein diacetate by the living granule cells present in each culture dish. We show that this method can also be used to quantify the survival effect of chronic exposure of granule cells to either K + or NMDA In both cases, the fluorescence measured was found to be proportional to the number of fluorescein‐labelled cells counted under a fluorescence microscope, indicating that the present method can be used to quantify both toxic and trophic effects of NMDA on cerebellar granule cells. This study confirms that these two NMDA effects occur at the same NMDA concentration, and both are inhibited by MK 801 in the same concentration range. We showed, moreover, that granule neurons developed in the presence of NMDA are much less sensitive to NMDA toxicity than neurons developed in K + ‐enriched medium.