An In Vitro Technique to Study Glutamate Receptor Trafficking in Hippocampal Neurons

Abstract

Source: Chiu, A. M., et al. An Antibody Feeding Approach to Study Glutamate Receptor Trafficking in Dissociated Primary Hippocampal Cultures. J. Vis. Exp. (2019)

This video demonstrates an antibody-feeding approach to study the trafficking of glutamate receptors in primary hippocampal neuronal cultures. This approach allows the observation of receptor populations at both the plasma and internal membranes. Discrimination between these subsets is achieved by labeling the receptors before and after membrane permeabilization, using the same primary antibody but secondary antibodies conjugated to different fluorophores.

Protocol

1. Preparation Before Labeling Preparation and maintenance of primary hippocampal cultures​ Prepare primary hippocampal cultures at a density of 150,000 cells plated on poly-D-lysine-coated (0.1 mg/mL) 18 mm cover glasses. Excellent guides for dissociated neuronal culture preparation are available. NOTE: If required, the cultures may be treated with cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C, 10 μM from days in vitro 1 [DIV1]) to avoid glial p…

Representative Results

Figure 1: cLTP increases surface expression of GluA1. Primary hippocampal neurons at DIV21 were subjected to chemical LTP (cLTP) by incubating with glycine-containing ECS. Distinct labeling of surface-expressed (red) vs. intracellular (blue) GluA1 populations reveals the expected increase in surface expression of AMPAR. (A) Single plane and (B) Z-stacked (maximum…

Materials

18 mm dia. #1.5 thick coverglasses	Neuvitro	GG181.5
Alexa 555-conjugated goat anti-mouse secondary	Life Technologies	A21424
Alexa 555-conjugated goat anti-rabbit secondary	Life Technologies	A21429
Alexa 647-conjugated goat anti-mouse secondary	Life Technologies	A21236
Alexa 647-conjugated goat anti-rabbit secondary	Life Technologies	A21245
B27	Gibco	17504044
CaCl2	Sigma	C7902
Corning Costar Flat Bottom Cell Culture Plates	Corning	3513
Dynasore	Tocris	2897
Glucose	Sigma	G8270
Glycine	Tocris	219
Goat anti-rabbit Fab fragments	Sigma	SAB3700970
HEPES	Sigma	H7006
KCl	Sigma	P9541
L-Glutamine	Sigma	G7513
Lipofectamine 2000	Invitrogen	11668019
Mouse anti-GluA1 antibody	Millipore	MAB2263
NaCl	Sigma	S6546
Neurobasal Media	Gibco	21103049
NGS	Abcam	Ab7481
Parafilm	Bemis	PM999
PBS	Gibco	10010023
Pelco BioWave	Ted Pella	36500
PFA	Alfa Aesar	43368
Picrotoxin	Tocris	1128
Poly-D-lysine hydrobromide	Sigma	P7280
ProLong Gold Antifade Mountant	Life Technologies	P36934
Rabbit anti-GFP antibody	Invitrogen	A11122
Rabbit anti-PSD-95 antibody	Cell Signaling	2507
Strychnine	Tocris	2785
Sucrose	Sigma	S0389
Superfrost plus microscope slides	Fisher	12-550-15
Triton X-100	Sigma	X100
TTX	Tocris	1078