Question

Can we culture neurons?

Answer 1

Hoot! You just asked your first question! Hang tight while I find people to answer it for you. You can thank people who give you good answers by clicking the 'Good Answer' button on the right!

Answer 2

I think the ans is no.......(not sure) these cells once matured won't divide.
Each type of cell has its own special requirements in terms of exact pH, nutrients, and growth factors. And, nerve cells require such specific requirements that there is no one sure way to culture them.

The general process is to isolate the tissue through surgery, and then use mechanical plus enzymatic disassociation of the tissue, light centrifugation, and rinsing in media to remove enzymes then initial plating. This is actually very difficult to do in practice.

Another obstacle is that primary nerve cultures (taken directly from living tissue) have a relatively short lifespan. Nerve cells are not like muscle and skin cells in that they generally lack the ability to replicate. FROM the site mentioned below

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_one_culture_nerve_cells#ixzz1O0OEMcDm

Nerve cell culture medias are availabe.....for growing certain viruses like RABIES........

Answer 3

but can we geneically modify it to induce division?

Answer 4

Scientists have been able to grow neurons from human skin cells. These cells "were able to generate action potentials and many matured to receive synaptic contacts when co-cultured with primary mouse cortical neurons" I don't beleive that we can actualy implent these neurons in a human body, but that's a first step.

Nature article's abstract on the subject:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vnfv/ncurrent/full/nature10202.html

Answer 5

http://4mind4life.com/blog/2008/08/18/7-scientifically-proven-ways-to-stimulate-brain-cell-growth-neurogenesis/

Answer 6

It has been demonstrated that neurogenesis can sometimes occur in the adult vertebrate brain, a finding that led to controversy in 1999. However, more recent studies of the age of human neurons suggest that this process occurs only for a minority of cells, and the overwhelming majority of neurons comprising the neocortex were formed before birth and persist without replacement.

It is often possible for peripheral axons to regrow if they are severed. This regrowth can take a long time: after a nerve injury to the human arm, for example, it may take months for feeling to return to the hands and fingers.[citation needed] A report in Nature suggested that researchers had found a way to transform human skin cells into working nerve cells using a process called transdifferentiation in which "cells are forced to adopt new identities.

Answer 7

In my lab, I have been growing neurons from cerebellum tissues. The hardest part is separating them, because allego-dendrocytes turn up more.