Roya Lari; Peter Kitchener
Abstract
Microglia cells are a subset of central nervous system (CNS) macrophages. Changes in the CNS such as injury, or developmental events, follow by morphological and physiological changes in microglia cells. In this study organotypic brain slice cultures under serum free condition were used to investigate ...
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Microglia cells are a subset of central nervous system (CNS) macrophages. Changes in the CNS such as injury, or developmental events, follow by morphological and physiological changes in microglia cells. In this study organotypic brain slice cultures under serum free condition were used to investigate the morphology and lectin histochemistry of microglia and macrophages in the CNS in vitro. Microglial cells exhibited dramatic morphological changes in the organotypic brain slice culture. Immediately after slicing microglias were seen to have the same morphology as they do in the intact brain: they had small cell bodies from which radiated several highly ramified processes. After 1 day in vitro all microglia transformed into an active form with round soma and no processes. At 5 days in vitro, and especially at 9 days in vitro, many of the microglia had tended to return to the ramified phenotype. The expression of different carbohydrates was examined at the 0, 1, 5 and 9 days in vitro time periods by employing Lycopersicon esculentum tomato lectin (LEL lectins) and Sambucus nigra (SNA). Microglial cells with different morphology intensely stained with LEA . SNA stained the ramified microglia only after they re-ramified at 5 DIV and 9 DIV. The results of this study confirmed that the expression of carbohydrate structures in these cells would undergo changes commensurate with the changes in morphology.
Roya Lari; Jameel A. Khan; Peter D. Kitchener
Abstract
The exact developmental origin of microglia is still under debate. In the present study we investigated which
heamatopoietic tissues and which features of the organotypic brain slice culture promoted microglia
ramification. The potential of cells derived from embryonic yolk sac, embryonic aorta-gonad-mesonephros ...
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The exact developmental origin of microglia is still under debate. In the present study we investigated which
heamatopoietic tissues and which features of the organotypic brain slice culture promoted microglia
ramification. The potential of cells derived from embryonic yolk sac, embryonic aorta-gonad-mesonephros and
adult blood monocytes was examined. These tissues were co-cultured with brain slices after the brain slices
had first been maintained in vitro for 1 day, 5 days and 9 days. When brain slices had been maintained in
culture for 1 day before the donor cells were added, the donor cells took several days to ramify. However,
when donor tissues were added to brain slices that had been 5 or 9 days maintained in culture, the donor cells
exhibited a ramified morphology within a day. Therefore changes in organotypic brain slices had an effect on
the transformation of cells to the microglial morphology. When adult blood monocytes were added to brain
slice cultures there was no evidence of any tendency to ramify over 6 days of co-culture. This study did not
support the suggestion that microglia cells derive from bone-marrow (BM) cells or from circulating
monocytes.
