Neural cell targets of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in human fetal organotypic cultures.

Some children infected by HIV-1 demonstrate nervous system disease. Because a significant percentage of these children are believed to be infected during gestation and it is thought that HIV-1 may infect distinct glial populations, this work tested the hypothesis that different HIV-1 isolates can infect cells of the developing human fetal central nervous system (CNS). Central nervous system organotypic tissue cultures derived from human fetal brain enable the study of complex interactions between CNS cell types.

Human fetal myelinated organotypic cultures.

We have previously reported the establishment of organotypic cultures derived from human fetal brain tissue. Although these cultures permit the testing of multiple hypotheses about normal human neurodevelopment and neuropathologic conditions, they have the limitation of not being myelinated and therefore preclude the study of questions related to myelinogenesis and diseases of myelin. In the current communication, we describe recent developments that allow us to overcome this limitation and permit the establishment of a myelinated organotypic culture model.