Growth Cones Turn at a Boundary

Below is a link to a Quick Time Movie of a cultured neonatal dorsal root ganglion neuron unable to cross a boundary.    A round glass coverslip which formed the bottom of a 35 mm Petri dish was first coated with poly-l-lysine (PLL).  A drop of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (CSPG) solution was placed in the center of the coverslip and allowed to adhere.  Eight day old mouse dorsal root ganglion neurons were dissociated and plated on the coverslip.  After 24 hr, the Petri dish was placed in a CO₂ incubator on the stage of a Nikon inverted microscope.  Images were captured at 1/min with a 40X objective using the Metamorph Program.  The Quick Time movie was made using ImageJ and represents 142 frames at 1 frame/min.  What you will see is cell body towards the right, with a growth cone growing on PLL turning along the boundary.  (Wang, et. al, J. Cell Sci., 2008)

Download the Movie

Dr. Herbert Geller, Head
Developmental Neurobiology Section, NHLBI, NIH
Building 10, Room 6D18, 10 Center Drive, MSC-1754
Bethesda, MD 20892-1650
Email: gellerh@nhlbi.nih.gov

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