The Relevance of Astrocytic Cell Culture Models for Neuroinflammation in Neurodegeneration Research

Abstract

Astrocytes are the predominant glial cells that provide essential support to neurons and promote microenvironment changes in neuropathological states. Astrocyte and astrocytic-like cell culture have substantially contributed to elucidating the molecular pathways involved in key glial roles, including those relevant to neurodevelopment, brain physiology and metabolism, which are not readily accessible with traditional approaches. The in vitro methodology has also been applied to neuroinflammatory and neurodegeneration contexts, revealing cellular changes involved in brain dysfunction. Astrocytes studies in culture started with primary cell approaches using embryonic and postmortem tissue. Further developments included newborn rodent primary cells, cell lines and immortalized astrocytes, which resulted in homogeneous cell-type preparations grown on flat surfaces. To overcome some in vitro shortcomings, tridimensional bioprinted models and organoid culture enabled the mimicking of tissue cellular arrangements and, above these achievements, complex astrocyte cell culture can be generated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to model diseases. These unprecedented breakthroughs allowed the development of platforms to test new therapies in brain cells derived from human material noninvasively obtained from live patients. In this work, we reviewed the most studied astrocytic cell models for discussing limitations, advantages and reliable experimental readouts for neuroinflammation in neurodegeneration research.