AN ARTERIALLY-PERFUSED TRUNK-HINDQUARTERS PREPARATION OF ADULT-MOUSE IN-VITRO

We describe a preparation of arterially-perfused spinal cord with atta ched hindquarters, taken from adult mouse. This is the first preparati on of adult mammalian spinal cord tissue to have the advantages of an in vitro approach whilst retaining intact intraspinal circuitry, senso ry inputs? and somatic and sympathetic segmental outputs. The function al integrity of the preparation has been demonstrated by the motor and sympathetic reflexes that can readily be evoked by peripheral noxious thermal, mechanical and electrical stimuli, and also by bladder diste nsion. The mechanical stability of the preparation allows intracellula r recordings to be made from spinal dorsal or ventral horn neurones. T he intact connectivity permits synaptic responses to be evoked by stim ulation of functionally-defined peripheral sensory receptors. The prep aration is relatively quick to set up and remains viable for more than 6 h. This model offers the opportunity to perform complex electrophys iological and pharmacological studies on functionally characterised sy naptic responses of mature spinal neurones. The choice of the mouse wi ll furthermore permit studies to be performed on genetically mutant st rains. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.