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Transfection of Cultured Primary Neurons

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Book cover Stem Cell Technologies in Neuroscience

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 126))

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Abstract

The efficient delivery of genes into neurons is a crucial tool for the study of neuronal cell biology as well as for the development of novel therapeutic approaches, such as gene therapy. Over the past years, numerous techniques have been established to deliver genes into cells. These methods can be broadly classified into two main groups: viral based and nonviral methods. The viral methods use viral particles such as adenoviruses, adeno-associated, lentiviruses, and herpes simplex viruses. Nonviral methods can be subdivided into physical and chemical methods. While the first one includes techniques such as electroporation, magnetofection, microinjection, and biolistics, the latter comprises lipofection and calcium phosphate/DNA co-precipitation. Each one of these methods has its own advantages and drawbacks and the choice of a particular method depends on the experimental setting and objective. In this chapter, we summarize the key advantages and disadvantages of various techniques for the gene delivery in primary neurons and neuronal stem cells.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Anna Cereseto, Dr. Luciano Conti, and Martin Michael Hanczyc for their comments on the manuscript. We apologize to all authors whose work could not be cited due to space restrictions. This work was supported by the MaDEleNA Project funded by PAT (Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Centre for Integrative Biology (CIBIO), University of Trento, Trento, I-38123, Italy

    Annalisa Rossi & Paolo Macchi

  2. Department of Biology, University of Padova, Via U. Bassi 58/B, I-35121, Padova, Italy

    Ralf Dahm

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  1. Annalisa Rossi
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  2. Ralf Dahm
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  3. Paolo Macchi
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Correspondence to Paolo Macchi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Surgery Children’s Program in Regenerative Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas, USA

    Amit K. Srivastava

  2. Center for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, California, USA

    Evan Y. Snyder

  3. Departments of PM&R and Neurosurgery Harvard Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Network and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Yang D. Teng

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Rossi, A., Dahm, R., Macchi, P. (2017). Transfection of Cultured Primary Neurons. In: Srivastava, A., Snyder, E., Teng, Y. (eds) Stem Cell Technologies in Neuroscience. Neuromethods, vol 126. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7024-7_4

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