Abstract
In vivo studies are ideal for identifying the phenomenology of ethanol toxicity and teratology. They are limited in being able to explore cellular and molecular mechanisms of action. Two types of culture models have proven to be very instructive: monolayer primary cultures of dissociated cells and organotypic slice cultures. Dissociated cell preparations have the advantage of being enriched populations of cells, whereas the organotypic cultures have the advantage of providing normal cell associations. Details for the methods used to generate these preparations are described. As ethanol is a volatile liquid, the success of a culture model depends upon stabilizing the ethanol content in the culture medium. A method to maintain the ethanol concentration is described.
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Acknowledgments
The investigators thank a number of others who have worked with us over the years and have helped perfect the culturing methods described in this chapter, including Steve Alcott, Julie Jacobs, Jia Luo, Sandra Mooney, and Julie Siegenthaler. Our work has been funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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Lindke, A., Tremper-Wells, B., Miller, M.W. (2008). Generation and Use of Primary Rat Cultures for Studies of the Effects of Ethanol. In: Nagy, L.E. (eds) Alcohol. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 447. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-242-7_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-242-7_10
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