Rat (Sprague Dawley) pups at the postnatal 0-day (P0) were sacrificed to harvest CA1 and CA3 of the hippocampal regions of the brain tissue as previously described (23, 40) . All procedures were performed according to the animal protocol approved by the Department of Health, Government of Hong Kong. Around 2 × 10 4 neurons were plated on each Poly D-Lysine (P7886, Sigma-Aldrich, USA)-coated cover glass with a (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
diameter of 12 mm (Glaswarenfabrik Karl Hecht GmbH & Co KG, Germany) in 24well plates. Two days after plating the neurons, 10 µM uridine (U3003, Sigma-Aldrich) and 10 µM 5-fluorodeoxyuridine (F0503, Sigma-Aldrich) were added to inhibit the proliferation of glial cells in cultured neurons (41) . The neurons were cultured in the Neurobasal TM -A Medium (10888022, Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) supplemented with 2.5 % FBS, 1 % Penicillin-Streptomycin (15140122, Thermo Fisher Scientific), 500 µM GlutaMAX TM -I Supplement (A1286001, Thermo Fisher Scientific), and 2 % B-27 TM Supplement (17504001, Thermo Fisher Scientific). Cultured neurons were maintained in a 5% CO2 incubator at 37°C before experiments were performed.