BioTechniques (Jan 2017)

RNA extraction from sorted neuronal subtypes

  • Alka Saxena,
  • Akiko Wagatsuma,
  • Yukihiko Noro,
  • Takenobu Kuji,
  • Atsuko Asaka-Oba,
  • Akira Watahiki,
  • Cecile Gurnot,
  • Michela Fagiolini,
  • Takao K. Hensch,
  • Piero Carninci

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2144/000114499
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 62, no. 1
p. x

Abstract

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Protocol Summary Efficient isolation of specific, intact, living neurons from the adult brain is problematic due to the complex nature of the extracellular matrix consolidating the neuronal network. Here, we present significant improvements to the protocol for isolation of pure populations of neurons from mature postnatal mouse brain using fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS). The 10-fold increase in cell yield enables cell-specific transcriptome analysis by protocols such as nanoCAGE and RNA seq.