Fig. 1

Organotypic hippocampal slice cultures (OHSCs) maintain cellular diversity and display no spontaneous tau pathology. a Schematic of the production of OHSCs. 300 µm thick sagittal slices are cut from brain hemispheres. The hippocampus is then dissected and cultured at the air–liquid interface on semi-permeable membranes with media supplied to the basal side of the membrane. b OHSCs from mice transgenic for P301S tau were fixed after 2 weeks in culture and stained for nuclei (DAPI), the neuronal marker Map2, the astrocyte marker Gfap, and the microglial marker Iba1. Scale bars, 50 µm. c OHSCs from P301S tau transgenic mice stain positive for human tau-specific antibody HT7 whereas OHSCs from WT mice do not. Scale bars, 250 µm and 25 µm. d OHSCs from P301S tau transgenic mice after 5 weeks in culture display only background levels of staining with the phospho-tau specific antibody AT8. Slices were stained with DAPI and Map2 as above and with pan-tau. Scale bars, 250 µm