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9 December 2019 In Vitro Differentiation of Chicken Astrocytes: Growth, Morphology, and Protein Expression of Astrocytes in Primary Cultures
Satoko Tsukuda, Akiko Tamura, Kei Matsumoto, Yuki Fujita, Shihoko Nakata, Tatsuroh Kaneko, Ayako Nakayama, Hiroyuki Nakagawa, Asako G. Terasaki
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Abstract

Astrocytes regulate synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. Astrocytes in vivo have “stems” that express glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), intermediate filaments, and peripheral astrocyte processes (PAPs), which contain actin-rich cytoskeletal structures. At the PAPs, the perisynaptic glia contacts and enwraps synapses, and modulates glia-neuronal communication. Cultured astrocytes have been an invaluable tool for studying roles of astrocytes; however, the morphology of mammalian primary astrocytes cultured in conventional medium containing fetal bovine serum (FBS) was similar to that of fibroblasts, and many culture conditions have been developed to generate stellate astrocytes observed in vivo. Avian astrocytes have been prepared from embryonic chick forebrain and maintained at a high cell density in conventional FBS-containing medium as mammalian astrocytes, thus the morphological analysis of chicken astrocytes has not yet been performed. In the present study, we report that the morphology of astrocytes freshly harvested from the forebrain of a chicken embryo in serum-free Neurobasal medium with B-27 supplement and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is similar to that of the astrocyte morphology in vivo. We also find that astrocytes in this medium express similar levels of GFAP and two actin-binding proteins as astrocytes in conventional FBS-containing medium, although they have different morphologies. Furthermore, we confirmed that cryopreserved astrocytes differentiate faster than freshly harvested astrocytes.

© 2019 Zoological Society of Japan
Satoko Tsukuda, Akiko Tamura, Kei Matsumoto, Yuki Fujita, Shihoko Nakata, Tatsuroh Kaneko, Ayako Nakayama, Hiroyuki Nakagawa, and Asako G. Terasaki "In Vitro Differentiation of Chicken Astrocytes: Growth, Morphology, and Protein Expression of Astrocytes in Primary Cultures," Zoological Science 36(6), 458-467, (9 December 2019). https://doi.org/10.2108/zs180102
Received: 29 June 2018; Accepted: 19 June 2019; Published: 9 December 2019
KEYWORDS
Actin-binding protein
astrocyte
Cell culture
differentiation
peripheral astrocyte process
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