Organotypic cultures as tools for functional screening in the CNS

• Published in: Drug discovery today Vol. 10; no. 14; pp. 993 - 1000
• Main Authors: Sundstrom, Lars, Pringle, Ashley, Morrison, Barclay, Bradley, Mark
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 15.07.2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Central Nervous System - growth & development; Central Nervous System - physiology; Drug Industry - methods; Drug Industry - trends; General pharmacology; high content; Medical sciences; neurodegeneration; organotypic; Pharmaceutical technology. Pharmaceutical industry; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; screening; Technology, Pharmaceutical - methods; Technology, Pharmaceutical - trends; Tissue culture; Tissue Culture Techniques - methods; Tissue Culture Techniques - trends; Tissue culture; neurodegeneration; screening; organotypic; high content; Drug Discovery; Screening; In vitro; Pharmaceutical technology
• ISSN: 1359-6446; 1878-5832
• DOI: 10.1016/S1359-6446(05)03502-6

Screening gets more complex with organotypic culture systems. A major challenge for the pharmaceutical industry is the development of relevant model systems in which knowledge gained from high-throughput, genomic and proteomic approaches can be integrated to study function. Animal models are still the main choice for such studies but over the past few years powerful new in vitro systems have begun to emerge as useful tools to study function. Organotypic cultures made from slices of explanted tissue represent a complex multi-cellular in vitro environment with the potential to assess biological function and are uniquely placed to act as an important link between high-throughput approaches and animal models.