ePoster

It takes two - or three: Comparing human pluripotent stem cell derived glia-neuron co-cultures to neuron monoculture under basal and injury conditions

Jin-Yuan Wangand 5 co-authors

Presenting Author

Conference
FENS Forum 2024 (2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

Jin-Yuan Wang, Jeanne Chan, Kasandra McCormack, Allen C. Eaves, Sharon A. Louis, Erin Knock

Abstract

Current advances allow for efficient generation of neuron, astrocyte and microglia cultures from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). However, monocultures lack physiologically important glia-neuron interactions. We created a protocol to co-culture neurons with astrocytes and microglia to assess the impact of glia on neuronal morphology and recovery under injury conditions. We generated hPSC-derived forebrain neurons, astrocytes and microglia using the STEMdiff™ Forebrain Neuron, Astrocyte and Microglia culture systems, respectively. We maintained neuron-astrocyte co-cultures for one week using STEMdiff™ Forebrain Neuron Maturation Medium. We evaluated the effect of astrocyte presence on neuronal phenotypes by measuring neurite length and number of MAP2-positive cells. Next, we established a tri-culture model containing hPSC-derived neurons, astrocytes and microglia in BrainPhys™-based hPSC Neuronal Medium with STEMdiff™ Microglia Supplement 2. To assess response to injury, we scratched the cultures and measured the percentage of area covered by GFAP+ astrocytes, βIIITUB+ neurons and GFP-fluorescent microglia after 48 hours. After one week of neuron-astrocyte co-culture, we observed a non-significant increase in MAP2+ neurons and a significant 1.26 ± 0.09-fold increase in neurite length (mean ± SEM, normalized to control; n = 4 - 5; p = 0.04) for co-cultured neurons. Preliminary results suggest that microglia in the tri-culture may positively correlate to an increase of βIIITUB+ neurons in the injury area (n = 1, p < 0.05). These results demonstrate that populations of astrocytes, neurons and microglia can be cultured together to display developed neuronal phenotypes and functional properties compared to neuron monocultures.

Unique ID: fens-24/takes-three-comparing-human-pluripotent-67ef99e3