Quantitative assessment of neurite outgrowth in mouse retinal explants

Despite intensive research efforts over the past years, regeneration of injured axons in the central nervous system (CNS) remains elusive. The discovery of novel neuro-stimulatory agents that promote regeneration is hampered by a gap between high content analysis platforms using neuronal cells and time-consuming preclinical animal models. In this regard, tissue explant cultures, which are easily manageable and more closely resemble the in vivo situation, form an ideal model system to study the effect of compounds on the neuroglial network. Retinal explants have proven to be a useful tool to investigate the effect of molecules on neuronal survival and regeneration. In this chapter, we report a detailed description of how to isolate and culture retinal explants and how to immunolabel the outgrowing neurites. Furthermore, we describe different analysis tools, both manual and automated, to quantify neurite outgrowth from retinal explants.