Cell Culturing of Caenorhabditis elegans Glial Cells for the Assessment of Cytosolic Ca2+ Dynamics
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Cell culture has emerged as an important research method for studying various types of primary cells, including neurons and
glial cells. This method has been especially instrumental in assessing intracellular Ca2+
dynamics of neural cells. The invertebrate model organism Caenorhabditis elegans
has been extensively used in neurobiology to study wide-spread issues ranging from gene regulation to behavior. We present
some of the basic morphological characteristics of the four C. elegans
glial cells residing in the cephalic sensilla of the worm, followed by a description of cell culturing methods for these
glial cells. We describe the combined genetic and fluorescence microscopy approaches for identification of C. elegans
glial cells in culture and assessment of their cytosolic Ca2+
dynamics.
