A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF PREPARATION TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING THE VIABILITY OF STRIATAL GRAFTS USING VITAL STAINS, IN-VITRO CULTURES, AND IN-VIVO GRAFTS

Cell suspension grafts from embryonic striatal primordia placed into t he adult rat striatum survive well and are able to alleviate a number of behavioral deficits caused by excitotoxic lesions to this structure . However, neither the anatomical connectivity between the graft and h ost nor the functional recovery elicited by the grafts is completely r estored. One way in which the survival and function of embryonic stria tal grafts may be enhanced is by the improvement of techniques for the preparation of the cell suspension prior to implantation, an issue th at has been addressed only to a limited extent. We have evaluated a nu mber of parameters during the preparation procedure, looking at the ef fects on cell survival over the first 24 h from preparation using vita l dyes and the numbers of surviving neurons in vitro, after 4 days in culture, in addition to graft survival and function in vivo. Factors i nfluencing cell survival include the type of trypsinization procedure and the age of donor tissues used for suspension preparation. The pres ence of DNase has no effect on cell viability but aids the dissociatio n of the tissue to form single cells. These results have important imp lications for the use of embryonic striatal grafts in animal models of Huntington's disease, and in any future clinical application of this research. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.