Astrogliosis in a dish: substrate stiffness induces astrogliosis in primary rat astrocytes.

ABSTRACT: Astrogliosis due to brain injury or disease can lead to varying molecular and morphological changes in astrocytes. Magnetic resonance elastography and ultrasound have demonstrated that brain stiffness varies with age and disease state. However, there is a lack in understanding the role of varied stiffness on the progression of astrogliosis highlighting a critical need to engineer in vitro models that mimic disease stages. Such models need to incorporate the dynamic changes in the brain microenvironment including the stiffness changes. In this study we developed a polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) based platform that modeled the physiologically relevant stiffness of brain in both a healthy (200 Pa) and diseased (8000 Pa) state to investigate the effect of stiffness on astrocyte function.

SUBMITTER: Wilson CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7394306 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature