Latex beads phagocytosis capacity and ecto-NAD+glycohydrolase activity of rat brain microglia cellsin vitro

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Abstract
Conditions are described which allow the preparation in vitro of pure (>95%) microglial cell cultures isolated from newborn rat brain. Such ameboid cell cultivated in vitro can efficiently phagocytize opsonized latex beads and are capable of ingesting more (100-200 beads of 1.1 .mu.m diameter per cell) and larger (6.4 .mu.M) particles than other nerve cells, such as oligodendrocytes and astroglia. The microglial cells also show an important ecto-NAD+ glycohydrolase activity which is charateristics of phagocytic cells. We noted that the phagocytic and capacity and ecto-NAD+ glycohydrolase of these cells were correlated and increased notably during the in vitro culture. Microglia cultivated in vitro appear to be a good model to study the activation of phagocytic properties in the central nervous system and corresponding modulation by natural or pharmacological immunomodulators.