Transplantation of cultured fetal spinal cord grafts, grown on a histocompatible substrate, into adult spinal cord

Cell suspensions from 14-day gestation rat spinal cord can be successfully cultured on collagen gels containing laminin. After 7 and 14 days in culture the gels were removed from the dish and slices of gel with cultured cells were transplanted into the dorsal column of adult rats. Thirty days later there was no evidence of the gel. However, grafted neurons with well-developed organelles, axons, dendrites, axosomatic and axodendritic synapses were observed in the white matter of the host dorsal columns. Oligodendrocytes and astrocytes were also observed in the graft. This histocompatible substrate for culturing fetal CNS is a mechanism for transplanting cultured CNS cells as grafts of known maturity and synaptic organization into adult host CNS.