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 used microarrays to compare the global programme of gene expression in primary cultures of neurons and astrocytes. These data sets were compared to the expression profiles of other tissues, including pancreatic islets, in order to identify a specific neuroendocrine program in pancreatic islets. Neurons and astrocytes were isolated from brain cortex and cultured in vitro for 7 and 20 days respectively. RNA was extracted and hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays. Two biological samples from neurons and astrocytes were analyzed.
