Synonyms
Acute brain slice
Definition
Thin sections (∼400 μm thick) of part of the brain kept in oxygenated artificial cerebrospinal fluid.
Purpose
In the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), pharmacological studies were seriously hampered by the presence of the blood brain barrier (BBB). Direct infusion of drugs into the small brain regions is technically difficult in vivo, and it is rather hard to estimate the actual concentration of the drug at the recording site. In order to develop alternative in vitro experimental systems enabling pharmacological studies in a quantitative manner, in the mid 1960s, Yamamoto and McIlwain, devised a novel way to keep intact neuronal networks in thin slices of anterior piriform cortex [1,2]. Afterwards, it was revealed that this method is applicable to many cortical areas including neocortex, cerebellum, hippocampus, etc (Figs. 1 and 2).
Hippocampal slice preparation. Left panel: Surface image of the slices. Transverse...
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References
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Kamiya, H. (2009). Slice Preparation. In: Binder, M.D., Hirokawa, N., Windhorst, U. (eds) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_5462
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_5462
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