Ground squirrel primary cortical neurons were more tolerant to glutamate toxicity than rat neurons.

After the primary cortical neurons were cultured for 9 days in vitro, glutamate (200 µM) was added to the culture for 24 hours. (A) Representative phase contrast images show ground squirrel and rat cultured cortical neurons. The images show that the morphology of the ground squirrel neurons is better maintained than that of the rat neurons. Scale bar, 50 µm. (B) MTT assay, A₅₇₀ refers to the absorbance at 570 nm. n = 3 separate experiments, P<0.01. (C) LDH release assay. Rat: n = 3 separate experiments, GS: n = 2 separate experiments, P<0.05. The results demonstrate that ground squirrel neurons survived glutamate toxicity better than rat neurons. GS: ground squirrel.