Human Astrocytes (iPSC-derived, Normal)

Product Description

Astrocytes are a crucial component of the human central nervous system. Astrocytes' diverse and heterogeneous character allows them to serve a variety of important activities during brain formation as well as afterwards in neuronal homeostasis and synaptic transmission ^[1]. Since they engage in the development of synapses, and neurotransmitter recycling, astrocytes are crucial for the construction and plasticity of brain circuits ^[2] . In addition, astrocytes are immunocompetent cells that participate in neuroinflammation by secreting cytokines and chemokines, which may have protective or detrimental consequences for neuronal survival ^[3]. 

iXCells Biotechnologies is proud to provide fully differentiated and functional human iPSC-derived human astrocytes that display typical astrocytic morphology and express key markers of e.g., GFAP, ALDH1L1 (Figure 1) when cultured in the Human Astrocyte Maintenance Medium (Cat# MD-0109-100ML). In addition, our iPSC-derived Astrocytes can also be co-cultured with cortical neurons or other cell types for drug screening applications.

Figure 1. . Human iPSCs derived astrocytes show expression of characteristic biological markers. (A) Immunostaining of iPSC-derived astrocytes expressing ALDH1L1 (green), CD44 (red), S100b (red), or GFAP (green). All cells were counterstained for DAPI (blue). Scale bars, 200 µm. (B) Quantifications for percentage of astrocytes, positive for the listed markers over DAPI. Results are expressed as means ± SEM. (C) Cortical neurons were differentiated as a monolayer on a MEA plate and co-cultured with different types of astrocytes, and subsequently neuronal activity was measured. (D) Example raster plot showing spikes (black lines) and network bursts (pink lines) in the MEA for neurons cultured with or without astrocytes. (E) At 5 days of neural differentiation, electrical parameters were measured in the MEA and the results are graphed as mean ± SEM for mean firing rate and number of spikes.

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References

[1] G. I. Hatton (2002) Glial-neuronal interactions in the mammalian brain. Adv. in Physiol. Edu. 26:225-237. 

[2] Van der Laan, L. J. W., De Groot, C. J. A., Elices, M. J. and Dijkstran, C. D. (1997) Extracellular matrix proteins expressed by human adult astrocytes in vivo and in vitro: an astrocyte surface protein containing the CS1 domain contributes to binding of lymphoblasts. J. Neurosci. Res. 50:539-548. 

[3] Chen Y., and Swanson, R. A. (2003) Astrocytes and brain injury. J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 23:137-149.

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