Table 1.

Advantages and disadvantages of organotypic slice culture vs. in vivo or cell culture studies.

	In Vivo	Slice Culture	Primary Culture	Simple Cell Culture
Cost	+ Housing for duration of experiment, high animal numbers	++ Breeding costs, fewer animals	++ Breeding or animal purchase costs, fewer animals	+++
Time	+ Months	++ Weeks	++ Weeks	+++ Days
Ethics of animal use	+ High animal numbers, induction of symptomatic disease	++ Fewer animals, no need to induce disease	++ Fewer animals, no need to induce disease	+++ No animals required
Technical difficulty	+ Inoculation, clinical assessment	++ Fast, accurate dissection, orientation for slicing	++ Fast, accurate dissection	+++ Sterile technique
Cell types, cyto-architecture	+++ All cell types, connections intact	++ All cell types, some connectivity disrupted	- Often one cell type No cytoarchitecture	- Often one cell type No cytoarchitecture
Genetics	++ Many models	+++ Can use any mouse models PLUS transgenic models that are lethal beyond the perinatal period, can transfect with recombinant adeno-associated viruses, can have many genetically identical slices from same mouse	+ Many genetically identical cell populations can be obtained from a single animal	- Immortalized cell lines are often cancer-based and can be unstable genetically
Real time monitoring	++ Closed system, monitor behavioural/clinical phenotype	+++ Open system, more amenable to live-cell imaging, no phenotype	+++ Open system amenable to live-cell imaging, no phenotype	+++ Open system amenable to live-cell imaging, no phenotype
Animal age	+++ Any age	++ Most viable cultures are from neonatal animals	+ Tissue must be taken from prenatal or neonatal animals	n/a
Vasculature	+++ Intact, blood–brain barrier present	++ No blood–brain barrier—better for drug testing	- None	n/a

+++ most advantageous; ++ less advantageous; + least advantageous. n/a indicates feature is not applicable in that model.