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A primary rodent triculture model to investigate the role of glia-neuron crosstalk in regulation of neuronal activity

Phadke, L; Lau, DHW; Aghaizu, ND; Ibarra, S; Navarron, CM; Granat, L; Magno, L; ... Jolly, S; + view all (2022) A primary rodent triculture model to investigate the role of glia-neuron crosstalk in regulation of neuronal activity. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience , 14 , Article 1056067. 10.3389/fnagi.2022.1056067. Green open access

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Abstract

Neuroinflammation and hyperexcitability have been implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease, and new models are required to investigate the cellular crosstalk involved in these processes. We developed an approach to generate a quantitative and reproducible triculture system that is suitable for pharmacological studies. While primary rat cells were previously grown in a coculture medium formulated to support only neurons and astrocytes, we now optimised a protocol to generate tricultures containing neurons, astrocytes and microglia by culturing in a medium designed to support all three cell types and adding exogenous microglia to cocultures. Immunocytochemistry was used to confirm the intended cell types were present. The percentage of ramified microglia in the tricultures decreases as the number of microglia present increases. Multi-electrode array recordings indicate that microglia in the triculture model suppress neuronal activity in a dose-dependent manner. Neurons in both cocultures and tricultures are responsive to the potassium channel blocker 4-aminopyridine, suggesting that neurons remained viable and functional in the triculture model. Furthermore, suppressed neuronal activity in tricultures correlates with decreased densities of dendritic spines and of the postsynaptic protein Homer1 along dendrites, indicative of a direct or indirect effect of microglia on synapse function. We thus present a functional triculture model, which, due to its more complete cellular composition, is a more relevant model than standard cocultures. The model can be used to probe glia-neuron interactions and subsequently aid the development of assays for drug discovery, using neuronal excitability as a functional endpoint.

Type: Article
Title: A primary rodent triculture model to investigate the role of glia-neuron crosstalk in regulation of neuronal activity
Location: Switzerland
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.1056067
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.1056067
Language: English
Additional information: © 2022 Phadke, Lau, Aghaizu, Ibarra, Navarron, Granat, Magno, Whiting and Jolly. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Keywords: Astrocytes, drug discovery, hyperexcitability, microglia, multi-electrode array, neuroinflammation, triculture
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Department of Neuromuscular Diseases
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10162616
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