UC Davis

Sympathetic cell culture is widely used for mechanistic studies of neurodevelopment, plasticity and neurotransmission. Other than chick ciliary ganglia, parasympathetic and enteric cultures are not as widely used, and have largely focused on electrophysiological and pharmacological properties of these cells. New procedures for culturing primary human autonomic neurons, and for co-culturing autonomic neurons with target tissue cells will increase the power of these models for addressing significant gaps in understanding of the cell biology and pharmacology of these neurons, the impact of which is underscored by the importance of autonomic nervous systems in regulating all major organ systems in vertebrates.