I am having some difficulties in finding papers related to the preparation of neuronal primary cultures from adult rat hippocampus to study neurotransmitter release from neurons.
The paper below is focused on microscopy but gives a nice step-by-step method for plating primary rat neurons on coverslips. It's an interesting paper in that it is published in Jove, an innovative peer-reviewed scientific journal that emphasizes the visual aspects of the experiments/data.
You may be able to adapt it to your specific needs: