Preparation of Organotypic Hippocampal Slice Cultures for the Study of CNS Disease and Damage

Organotypic hippocampal slice cultures (OHSCs) retain in vivo-like neuronal architecture, synaptic connections, and resident cell populations but gain in vitro advantages of accessibility to experimental manipulation and observation. This chapter describes how to prepare OHSCs from neonatal mice to study mechanisms of neuronal damage, including synapse loss and quantifying Aβ-containing axonal swellings from Alzheimer's disease transgenic mice.