Purification of oligodendrocyte lineage cells from mouse cortices by immunopanning

Oligodendrocytes are the myelinating cells of the vertebrate central nervous system, responsible for generating the myelin sheath necessary for saltatory conduction. The use of increasingly sophisticated genetic tools, particularly in mice, has vastly increased our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that regulate development of the oligodendrocyte lineage. This increased reliance on the mouse as a genetic model has led to a need for the development of culture methods to allow the use of mouse cells in vitro as well as in vivo. Here, we present a protocol for the isolation of different stages of the oligodendrocyte lineage, oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and/or postmitotic oligodendrocytes, from the postnatal mouse cortex using immunopanning. This protocol allows for the subsequent culture or biochemical analysis of these cells.