Browsing by Subject "Retinal astrocytes"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Microglia activation is essential for BMP7-mediated retinal reactive gliosis
    (BioMed Central, 2017) Dharmarajan, Subramanian; Fisk, Debra L.; Sorenson, Christine M.; Sheibani, Nader; Belecky-Adams, Teri L.; Department of Biology, School of Science
    Our previous studies have shown that BMP7 is able to trigger activation of retinal macroglia. However, these studies showed the responsiveness of Müller glial cells and retinal astrocytes in vitro was attenuated in comparison to those in vivo, indicating other retinal cell types may be mediating the response of the macroglial cells to BMP7. In this study, we test the hypothesis that BMP7-mediated gliosis is the result of inflammatory signaling from retinal microglia.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Toward the Establishment of an In-Vitro Model of Glaucoma Using Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Gupta, Manav; Meyer, Jason S.
    Glaucoma is a severe neurodegenerative disease of the retina, leading to eventual irreversible blindness. A crucial element in the pathophysiology of all forms of glaucoma is the death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), a population of CNS neurons with their soma in the inner retina and axons fasciculating together to form the optic nerve. Retinal astrocytes have also been associated with glaucomatous neurodegeneration, although the direct or indirect role for these cells in the disease process remains unclear. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provide a promising approach to develop cellular models to study such neurodegenerative diseases in vitro. Directed differentiation of several somatic cell types from human iPSCs have been successfully achieved with great implications for disease modeling and cell replacement strategies. Using existing lines of iPSCs, efforts were undertaken to successfully differentiate and characterize RGCs and astrocytes, the affected cell types in glaucoma. Using a previously described protocol, these cells were directed to differentiate toward a retinal fate through a step-wise process that proceeds through all of the major stages of neuroretinal development. The differentiation of RGCs was observed within the first forty days of differentiation whereas astrocytes were observed only after at least 70 days of differentiation. Using techniques including immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR, the individually derived somatic cells types were characterized by the expression of developmentally associated transcription factors specific to each cell type. Further approaches were undertaken to characterize the morphological differences between RGCs and other neuroretinal cell types derived in the process. Overall, this study demonstrates a robust method to derive the complex cell types associated with glaucoma, with prospects for further investigations into the developmental progression of the disease.