Project description:To understand how the circadian clock regulates astrocyte physiology, we conducted a circadian transcriptome analysis in cultured mouse cortical astrocytes
Project description:Astrocytes are implicated in neuronal development, particularly excitatory synaptogenesis, but their genome-wide impact is unclear. Using cell-type specific RNA-seq we show that cortical astrocytes induce widespread transcriptomic changes in developing cortical neurons. Rat cortical neurons were maintained in the presence or absence of mouse astrocytes, RNA-seq performed, and mixed-species RNA-seq reads sorted according to species. Cultures were also treated with TTX to abolish neuronal firing activity, to investigate the effects of the presence or absence activity-dependent signalling.
Project description:We and other groups doumented that astrocytes modulate migration, maturation and myelin sythesis of oligodendrocytes through release of neurotransmitters, cytokins and other signaling molecules. However, much less is known about on how the oligodendrocytes affects the astrocytes. We compared the transcriptome of cortical astrocytes when cultured alone and co-cultured with non-touching immortalized precursor oligodendrocytes (Oli-neu) in insert systems. Experimental data indicate that the oligodendrocyte-conditioning medium has a substantial effect on the the gene expression in astrocytes. Moreover, oligodendendrocyte proximity remodels major astrocyte functional pathways.
Project description:Astrocytes are implicated in neuronal development, particularly excitatory synaptogenesis, but their genome-wide impact is unclear. Using cell-type specific ChIP-seq we show that cortical astrocytes induce widespread changes in developing cortical neurons in histone marks associated with active open chromatin and repressed/condensed chromatin. Rat cortical neurons were maintained in the presence or absence of mouse astrocytes, ChIP-seq performed, and mixed-species ChIP-seq reads sorted according to species.
Project description:Cortical human fetal astrocytes, density 8-15000 cells/cm2 ( ScienCell, San Diego, CA, USA) seeded in Astrocyte medium (ScienCell, San Diego, CA, USA). Further info in "Proteomic and metabolomic characterization of human neurovascular unit cells in response to methamphetamine" Herland et al Adv Biosystems 2020
Project description:Illumina RNA sequencing technology was used to determine transcriptome changes in cultured mouse cortical neurons infected with lentivirus expressing shMeCP2
Project description:Isolation of glia from Alzheimer's mice reveals inflammation and dysfunction. Reactive astrocytes and microglia are associated with amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Yet, not much is known about the molecular alterations underlying this reactive phenotype. To get an insight into the molecular changes underlying AD induced astrocyte and microglia reactivity, we performed a transcriptional analysis on acutely isolated astrocytes and microglia from the cortex of aged controls and APPswe/PS1dE9 AD mice. As expected, both cell types acquired a proinflammatory phenotype, which confirms the validity of our approach. Interestingly, we observed that the immune alteration in astrocytes was relatively more pronounced than in microglia. Concurrently, our data reveal that astrocytes display a reduced expression of neuronal support genes and genes involved in neuronal communication. The microglia showed a reduced expression of phagocytosis and/or endocytosis genes. Co-expression analysis of a human AD expression data set and the astrocyte and microglia data sets revealed that the inflammatory changes in astrocytes were remarkably comparable in mouse and human AD, whereas the microglia changes showed less similarity. Based on these findings we argue that chronically proinflammatory astrocyte and microglia phenotypes, showing a reduction of genes involved in neuronal support and neuronal signaling, are likely to contribute to the neuronal dysfunction and cognitive decline in AD. 2 cell types from 2 conditions: cortical microglia and cortical astrocytes from 15-18 month old APPswe/PS1dE9 mice compared to wildtype littermates. Biological replicates: microglia from APPswe/PS1dE9, N=7, microglia from WT, N=7, astrocytes from APPswe/PS1dE9, N=4, microglia from WT, N=4