Neurons dissociated from rat myenteric plexus retain differentiated properties when grown in cell culture. III. Synaptic interactions and modulatory effects of neurotransmitter candidates.

We have used intracellular recordings to study synaptic interactions between myenteric neurons grown in dissociated cell culture. Intracellular stimulation of individual myenteric neurons caused several types of synaptic effects in nearby neurons: fast excitatory synaptic potentials mediated by nicotinic acetylcholine receptors; slow, non-cholinergic synaptic potentials; dual transmission having both fast cholinergic and slow non-cholinergic components and inhibition of spontaneously occurring fast nicotinic synaptic potentials. Fast nicotinic synaptic potentials were elicited by about 40% of neurons tested and often occurred spontaneously.

Neurons dissociated from rat myenteric plexus retain differentiated properties when grown in cell culture. II. Electrophysiological properties and responses to neurotransmitter candidates.

We have used intracellular recordings to study the electrophysiological and pharmacological properties of neurons that have been grown in cell cultures after having been dissociated from the myenteric plexus of the small intestine of newborn rats. Studies of action potential mechanisms revealed that all of the neurons could generate Na+-dependent action potentials in the presence of Ca2+-channel blockers and that about 70% could generate Ca2+-dependent action potentials when Na+ channels were blocked with tetrodotoxin. No neurons generated long afterhyperpolarizations after single action potentials but about 50% of neurons did so following trains of action potentials.

Neurons dissociated from rat myenteric plexus retain differentiated properties when grown in cell culture. I. Morphological properties and immunocytochemical localization of transmitter candidates.

We have developed procedures for dissociating neurons from the myenteric plexus of the small intestine of newborn rats and for growing those neurons in cell cultures for up to 3 months. Neurons in these cultures retain many of the differentiated properties of myenteric neurons in vivo. This is the first of a series of 3 papers describing those properties.

Surface morphology and function of human pulmonary alveolar macrophages from smokers and non-smokers.

Pulmonary alveolar macrophages were obtained by saline lavage from 23 healthy male volunteers--10 non-smokers and 13 cigarette smokers. Lavage produced three times as many alveolar macrophages in smokers than in non-smokers. When macrophages from smokers and from non-smokers were incubated in vitro, more cells from smokers adhered to glass, spread out, and showed enhanced nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction.

Two components from eye tissue that differentially stimulate the growth and development of ciliary ganglion neurons in cell culture.

Survival and development of chick ciliary ganglion neurons in vivo appear to depend on information from the embryonic eye structure that contains the postsynaptic targets of the neurons. We have tested embryonic eye extracts on ciliary ganglion neurons in dissociated cell culture for stimulation of growth and development. Control conditions were chosen that permitted the long term maintenance of the neurons in the absence of tissue extracts of conditioned medium.

Treatment of Mooren's ulcer by conjunctival excision.

3 early Mooren's ulcers were successfully treated by only one-time conjunctival excision adjacent to the ulcer, while in 2 other chronic vascularized Mooren's ulcers, repeated conjunctival excision was required for a final remission. The clinical outcome of these 5 eyes was better than that of 7 other eyes treated by conjunctival flap procedure, lamellar keratoplasty, topical eye drops or systemic medications. Four fragments of excised conjunctival tissue were examined histopathologically; the substantia propria was found to be infiltrated with plasma cells.

Dissociated ciliary ganglion neurons in vitro: survival and synapse formation.

Normally, about half of the ciliary ganglion neurons in 8-day-old chick embryos die before day 14 in ovo. However, when dissociated ciliary ganglion neurons were prepared from either 8- or 14-day-old embryos and grown in cell culture with skeletal myotubes, essentially all of the neurons survived for at least 3 weeks. Many of the neurons formed functional synapses on myotubes under these conditions; some neuromuscular synapses could be detected as early as 20 hr after addition of the ganglion cells to muscle cultures.