Isolation and Culture of Dorsal Root Ganglia (DRG) from Rodents

Preparations of peripheral sensory neurons from rodents are essential for studying the molecular mechanism of neuronal survival and physiology. Although, isolating and culturing these neurons proves difficult, often these preparations are contaminated with nonneuronal proliferating cells. Here, we describe an isolation method using a Percoll gradient and an antimitotic reagent to significantly reduce the nonneuronal cell contamination while maintaining the integrity of the rodent sensory dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons.