CELL ATTACHMENT TO FROZEN-SECTIONS OF INJURED ADULT-MOUSE BRAIN - EFFECTS OF TENASCIN ANTIBODY AND LECTIN PERTURBATION OF WOUND-RELATED EXTRACELLULAR-MATRIX MOLECULES

Previous studies describing the use of cryoculture methods have focuse d on the efficacy of the method for studying neuron attachment and neu rite outgrowth on intact sections of nerve, and rodent and even human brain. The cryoculture method has shown promise for determining the pr esence of cell attachment- and neurite-growth-inhibiting molecules in such specimens, and some studies have also attempted to neutralize suc h molecules with antibodies to myelin inhibitory proteins, nerve growt h factor, or factors present in conditioned media that may counteract the repulsiveness of some of these molecules preserved in sections of, for example, myelinated nerves or adult brain white matter. The prese nt study describes the novel use of lesioned central nervous system cr yocultures as substrates for investigating the attachment of embryonic neurons and PC12 cells. In addition to demonstrating the use of this novel scar substrate to extend previous 'scar-in-a-dish' models (David et al. (1990) Neuron, 5: 463-469; Rudge and Silver (1990) J. Neurosci ., 10: 3594-3603; Rudge et al. (1989) Exp. Neurol., 103: 1-16), the pr esent study also describes antibody and lectin perturbations of putati ve inhibitory molecules that result in an enhanced attachment of cells to cryosection cultures of brain and spinal cord wounds.