Odorant response kinetics from cultured mouse olfactory epithelium at different ages in vitro

Mammalian olfactory epithelium can withstand the external environment, undergo life-long regeneration, and respond to thousands of odorant stimuli, making it an attractive system for a variety of studies. Previously, we described a long-lived olfactory coculture of olfactory epithelium and bulb tissues and we present here the kinetic properties of that culture system. Neonatal mouse epithelial-bulbar explants were grown for periods as long as 121 days in vitro (DIV), nearly doubling the survival time of our previously longest lived cultures. Cultures at all ages responded to air-borne odorants. The youngest cultures (1-15 DIV) showed shorter half-rise and half-decay times than older cultures (21-121 DIV), and were more variable in their half-decay times. Zinc nanoparticles enhanced electro-olfactogram responses of both younger and older cultures and both groups were immunopositive for olfactory marker protein. The results show that our olfactory culture model can support mature, odorant-responsive olfactory receptor neurons that possess many of the response features of in situ olfactory receptor neurons.