I would appreciate feedback (and protocols) on whether or not it is feasible to establish functional synapses between motor neuron and skeletal muscle cell lines.
I haven't tried that yet. A friend tried in chambered coverglasses but the myoblasts grew much faster and tended to dislodge as a sheet before NSC-34 axons could reach them. I guess the axons need to be established before you add myoblasts to the other side of the chamber?
I am thinking about trying to culture NMJs from drosophila embryos as in
Primary cell cultures from Drosophila gastrula embryos.
Perrimon N, Zirin J, Bai J.
J Vis Exp. 2011 Feb 28;(48). pii: 2215. doi: 10.3791/2215.