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A method to immunolabel rodent spinal cord neurons and glia for molecular study in specific laser microdissected cells involved in neurodegenerative disorders

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Abstract

Neuron-glia interaction is involved in physiological function of neurons, however, recent evidences have suggested glial cells as participants in neurotoxic and neurotrophic mechanisms of neurodegenerative/neuroregenerative processes. Laser microdissection offers a unique opportunity to study molecular regulation in specific immunolabeled cell types. However, an adequate protocol to allow morphological and molecular analysis of rodent spinal cord astrocyte, microglia and motoneurons remains a big challenge. In this paper we present a quick method to immunolabel those cells in flash frozen sections to be used in molecular biology analyses after laser microdissection and pressure catapulting.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by individual grants from FAPESP (95/9060-6; 98/13122-5; 99/01319-1; 07/00491-3) and CNPq, Brazil. We thank Professor Fernando Carlos de Oliveira for proof reading the manuscript. We also thank FAPESP for an Institutional grant that make it possible the acquisition of the Palm® Microbeam System (process 2004/08926-0).

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Correspondence to Gerson Chadi.

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de Oliveira, G.P., Maximino, J.R., Lin, C.J. et al. A method to immunolabel rodent spinal cord neurons and glia for molecular study in specific laser microdissected cells involved in neurodegenerative disorders. J Mol Hist 40, 217–225 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10735-009-9233-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10735-009-9233-2

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