Table of Content

Brain

1 Introduction

The central nervous system (CNS) consists of seven structures defined by their tissue organization and function: the cerebral hemispheres, diencephalon, midbrain, cerebellum, pons, medulla oblongata, and spinal cord.

Structures of the central nervous system and their functions

CNS structure	Organization/substructures	Functions
Cerebral hemispheres	Corpus callosum	Connects left and right cerebral hemispheres
	Outer layer: Cerebral cortex	The largest region of the mammalian brain is divided into the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. Responsible for various functions, such as cognition, memory, awareness, consciousness, language, movement.
	Inner substructures: Amygdala	Perception and communication of emotions
	Hippocampus	Memory formation
	Basal ganglia	Regulation of movement
Diencephalon	Thalamus	Process most information input to cerebral cortex
Diencephalon	Hypothalamus	Regulation of autonomic, endocrine and visceral functions
Midbrain		Sensory and motor function control
Midbrain	Substantia nigra	Closely associated with motor system pathways of basal ganglia
Cerebellum		Connected to the brain stem. Modulates movement and is involved in learning motor skills
Pons		Conveys information about movement from cerebral hemispheres to cerebellum
Medulla oblongata		Regulates vital autonomic functions like breathing, blood pressure, heart rate
Spinal cord		Signal transmission from motor cortex to body, and from sensory neurons to sensory cortex; reflex center

MACS Handbook:

Neural cells (mouse)

2 Cell types, frequencies, and markers

The nervous system includes two main classes of cells: neurons and glial cells. Neurons receive, process, and transmit information. Glial cells perform multiple functions to support and protect neurons, including maintaining homeostasis, forming myelin, supplying nutrients, destroying pathogens, and removing dead neurons. In vertebrates, glial cells outnumber neurons 10–50 times, and are divided into microglia and macroglia. The two major classes of macroglia in the CNS are astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. For more information about cell types in the CNS see the MACS Handbook chapter neural cells.

MACS Handbook:

Neural cells (mouse)

3 Sample preparation

At a glance: Kits, reagents, and hardware for the preparation of neural tissue samples

Use	Comments	Product
Kits and reagents
Dissociation of neural tissue into a single-cell suspension, free of debris and red blood cells (RBC)	Animal age >P7; uses an optimized enzyme mix for enzymatic dissociation and contains debris and RBC removal solutions	Adult Brain Dissociation Kit, mouse and rat
Dissociation of neural tissue into a single-cell suspension	Animal age ≤P7; uses papain for enzymatic dissociation	Neural Tissue Dissociation Kit (P)
Dissociation of neural tissue into a single-cell suspension	Animal age ≤P7; uses trypsin for enzymatic dissociation	Neural Tissue Dissociation Kit (T)
Dissociation of neural tissue into a single-cell suspension optimized for subsequent neuron isolation	Animal age ≤P7	Neural Tissue Dissociation Kit – Postnatal Neurons
Dissociation of brain tumor tissue	Uses papain for enzymatic dissociation	Brain Tumor Dissociation Kit (P)
Dissociation of cultured neurospheres	Uses papain for enzymatic dissociation	Neurosphere Dissociation Kit (P)
Dissociation of embryoid bodies generated in vitro		Embryoid Body Dissociation Kit, human and mouse
Removal of myelin	To be used on single-cell suspensions	Myelin Removal Beads II, human, mouse, rat
Hardware and consumables
Tissue dissociation	Provides pre-set programs to dissociate different tissues with Miltenyi Biotec's enzyme kits for high cell yield and viability.	gentleMACS™ Octo Dissociator with Heaters
Tissue dissociation	Precision tool coupled with gentleMACS Dissociators that generates optimal shearing to efficiently disrupt tissue while keeping cells intact.	gentleMACS C Tube
Filtration	Smart design prevents clogging, enables one-step filtering with decreasing filter sizes, and accommodates 50 mL or 15 mL tubes.	MACS® SmartStrainer, 70 µm

Tissue dissociation into single-cell suspensions with high cell viability and a minimum of cell debris is a prerequisite for reliable cell separation, cell culture, flow cytometry analysis, and molecular analysis. A dissociation procedure that combines optimized enzymatic treatment with gentle mechanical dissociation is crucial for the preparation of viable single-cell suspensions. In case of adult neural tissue, sample preparation must also include removal of debris and erythrocytes to enable effective cell isolation and culture.

Miltenyi Biotec offers standardized, automated dissociation procedures that facilitate fast and reproducible dissociation of neural tissue at all development stages. All procedures are designed to deliver high numbers of viable cells for optimal downstream processing.

A special protocol for dissociating inflamed neural tissue can be downloaded from the Related Resources Panel to the right.