Cultured dissociated primary dorsal root ganglion neurons from adult horses enable study of axonal transport

Adalbert, Robert; Cahalan, Stephen; Hopkins, Eleanor; Almuhanna, Abdulaziz; Loreto, Andrea; Por, Erzsebet; Perkins, Justin; Coleman, Michael; Piercy, Richard

Abstract

Neurological disorders are prevalent in horses, but their study is challenging due to anatomic constraints and the large body size; very few host-specific in vitro models have been established to study these types of diseases, particularly from adult donor tissue. Here we report generation of primary neuronal dorsal root ganglia (DRG) cultures from adult horses: the mixed, dissociated cultures, containing neurons and glial cells, remained viable for 90 days. Similar to DRG neurons in vivo, cultured neurons varied in size and they developed long neurites. Mitochondrial movement was detected in cultured cells and was found to be significantly slower in glial cells compared to DRG-derived neurons. In addition, mitochondria were more elongated in glial cells than those in neurons. Our culture model will be a useful tool to study the contribution of axonal transport defects to specific neurodegenerative diseases in horses.

Citation

Adalbert, R., Cahalan, S., Hopkins, E., Almuhanna, A., Loreto, A., Por, E., Perkins, J., Coleman, M., & Piercy, R. (2022). Cultured dissociated primary dorsal root ganglion neurons from adult horses enable study of axonal transport. Journal of Anatomy, https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.13719

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 7, 2022
• Publication Date: Jun 21, 2022
• Deposit Date: Nov 2, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 15, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Anatomy
• Print ISSN: 0021-8782
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-7580
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.13719