Abstract
CA neurons are involved in a wide spectrum of physiological functions in the brain including sensory, motor, emotional, autonomic and endocrine regulation. Most CA neurons are localized in the brainstem and hypothalamic regions and typically make clusters of cells, among which the noradrenergic (A1, A2, A6) and dopaminergic (A9, A10, A12) neurons predominate. In order to explore functional roles of these neurons, we sought to collect CA neurons selectively using TH-GFP transgenic mice in which GFP expression was driven under TH-promoter. Fetal (E14.5, E16.5, or E18.5) brain was extracted, and neurons were dispersed after treating with trypsin, then GFP-positive cells were sorted out by flow-cytometry (FACS). RNA was extracted from the GFP-positive (TH) neurons, reverse-transcribed, and analyzed by PCR. [J Physiol Sci. 2006;56 Suppl:S112]
