The Leech Nervous System: A Valuable Model to Study the Microglia Involvement in Regenerative Processes
Figure 3
Phagocytosis activity of leech microglial cells. Following the dissection of leech nerve cord, microglial cells have been isolated and incubated in Ringer solution. Then heat-killed bacteria (Aeromonas hydrophila) have been labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) to be incubated during 1 minute, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or 6 hours in respective identical plates containing microglial cell culture at room temperature. Finally, after fixation with 4% paraformaldehyde, the cytospinned cells have been incubated with a nuclear dye (10 µg·mL−1 Hoechst 33342), washed in 0.1 M PBS, and mounted for analysis by confocal fluorescent microscopy (blue, nuclei; green, bacteria). Only 10 minutes (a) and 6 hours (b) conditions are presented in the figure.
