A variation of the tissue print technique for studying isolated spinal cord cells in situ

We present a novel variation of the tissue print technique which yields isolated spinal cells that retain their original topographical organization in situ. A light papain digestion combined with a low-melting-point agarose as the adhesive substrate is used to "print' a monolayer of cells from spinal cord slices. Printed cells are viable for studies using electrophysiological approaches. This technique provides a means to bridge the gap between properties of isolated cells and their topographical identity in spinal cord.