Thermo Fisher Scientific offers cryopreserved primary astrocytes for your neuroscience research. When thawed and cultured in vitro, these neural cell cultures exhibit astrocytic phenotypic markers and high viability.
What are astrocytes?
Astrocytes are large, star-shaped neural cells found in the brain. Astrocytes are the most common cells in the central nervous system and comprise several sub-types based on location within the CNS. They perform a variety of functions including neurotransmitter regulation, support of neuronal health and development as well as immune cell function and metabolism.
Primary astrocytes are harvested from tissue and have not been cultured extensively. Unlike neurons, primary astrocytes can be cultured and expanded in vitro.
Cultured astrocytes can be used to research cell transplantation, intracellular transport, ion-channel function, toxicity, receptor signaling, analyses of electrophysiological properties, neurotransmitter release, and evaluation of interaction between neurons and astrocytes.
FAQs—primary rat astrocytes and primary human astrocytes
Q. From what age and strain of rat are Gibco Rat Primary Cortical Astrocytes derived?
A. Gibco Rat Primary Cortical Astrocytes are isolated from the cortex of fetal (E19) Sprague Dawley rats.
Q. At what passage were Gibco Rat Primary Cortical Astrocytes cryopreserved?
A. Gibco Rat Primary Cortical Astrocytes were cryopreserved in growth medium containing 10% DMSO at passage 1 (P1).
Q. What is the difference, if any, between cortical and hippocampal astrocytes?
A. There are few known differences between cortical and hippocampal astrocytes. However, it has been reported that astrocytes from different regions of the brain show a differential sensitivity to ischemic injury (Zhao and Flavin, 2000; Xu et al., 2001).
Q. Is there any difference between cortical astrocytes isolated from fetal, postnatal, and adult tissue?
A. Primary rat astrocytes are typically isolated from late fetal or early postnatal brain because the resulting astrocytes are more viable in culture and of higher purity than astrocytes from adult brain.
Q. What is the viability of the cells once thawed?
A. Upon thawing, the vial has more than 70% viability, which will give more than one million live cells.
Q. What is the % purity of these cells?
A. Cell purity was evaluated in terms of the expression of astrocyte specific marker, GFAP. More than 80% of the cells were positive for GFAP marker and the expression of neuronal marker (DCX) and oligodendrocyte marker (GalC) were less than 10%.
Q. How many passages can these cells be expanded?
A. Gibco Rat Primary Cortical Astrocytes can be thawed, recovered, and proliferated up to three passages to yield 1.5–2 fold increase of cells.
Q. What is the doubling time of the cells?
A. The doubling time of Gibco Rat Primary Cortical Astrocytes is about 8.7 days.
Q. How can the cells be coated on glass coverslips?
A. Clean the coverslips and then coat them with 0.01% poly-D-lysine in double distilled water.
Q. I used astrocytes from another company and observed cell aggregates after thawing but not the astrocytes from your company. Why?
A. Gibco Rat Primary Cortical Astrocytes were dissociated into single cells before cryopreservation, which gives an advantage to control the number of cells to plate.
Q. What are some of the key applications for astrocytes?
A. Astrocytes can be used to research cell transplantation, intracellular transport, ion-channel function, toxicity, receptor signaling, analyses of electrophysiological properties, neurotransmitter release, and evaluation of interaction between neurons and astrocytes.
Q. What related products can be used with these cells?
Q. How long can I culture Gibco Human Astrocytes?
A. Human astrocytes can proliferate for a limited amount of time. The culture could have 2-4 fold increase in cell number over ten days in the recommended medium. However, we do not recommend cryopreserving the cells after initial thaw.
Q. What is the biosafety level (BSL) for Human Astrocytes?
A. The biosafety level (BSL) for mammalian cells in the US is typically biosafety level 2. Please note that this can vary from country to country.
Q. Can I grow Gibco Human Astrocytes in standard tissue-culture vessels without matrix coating?
A. No. These cells must be grown in Geltrex Matrix-coated tissue culture vessels.
Q. What are typical primary cell yields from tissue?
A. It varies a lot depending on the age of donor, size of tissues, locations, and conditions arrived to our facility. Sometime a small amount of tissue gives us many cells and sometimes a large amount of tissue gives us a very small lot. Typically, we can get 30–300 vials.
Q. How is the population doubling calculated for primary cells?
A. Cumulative population doublings are calculated from the seeding density and harvesting density from each culture level.
Q. What are primary cells?
A. Primary cells are cells taken directly from living tissue (e.g., biopsy material) and established for growth in vitro. These cells have undergone very few population doublings and are therefore more representative of the main functional component of the tissue from which they are derived in comparison to continuous (tumor or artificially immortalized) cell lines, making primary cells a more representative model for the in vivo state. Primary cells from different species may be used, allowing you to highlight potential differences between humans and preclinical test species. Before in vivo studies, mouse or rat cells can be used to refine doses and reduce the number of animals required for preclinical toxicology. Human cells can be used to determine the accuracy of extrapolating human data from an animal model.
Q. Are primary cells isolated from tissue using enzymatic digestion?
A. Yes, our primary cells are isolated from tissue using enzymatic digestion.
Q. What is the difference, if any, between cortical and hippocampal astrocytes?
A. There are few known differences between cortical and hippocampal astrocytes. However, it has been reported that astrocytes from different regions of the brain show a differential sensitivity to ischemic injury.
- Zhao, Gang and Flavin, Michael, Differential sensitivity of rat hippocampal and cortical astrocytes to oxygen-glucose deprivation injury. Neurosci Lett, 2000; 285: 177-180.
- Xu C. et al., Feeder-free growth of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells. Nat Biotechnol, 2001; 19(10): 971-974.
Q. Do you offer human neural stem cells (NSCs)?
A. We offer two types of human NSCs:
- Gibco StemPro Neural Stem Cells (Cat. No. A15654 or A15655): Isolated from human fetal cortex brain and manufactured under good manufacturing practice (GMP). Each lot is generated from the same master bank (same donor) so that the lot-to-lot variability is low. Cell doubling time is ~100 hours.
- Gibco Human Neural Stem Cells (H9-derived): Induced from H9 human ESC using a proprietary method. Cell doubling time is ~40–50 hours and increases with increasing passage number.
Both cells are tested for their ability to retain their proliferation and differentiation potential for at least three passages after thawing. Both are able to differentiate into neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. However, StemPro Neural Stem Cells are recommended to grow in suspension culture as adherent culture would trigger differentiation, whereas Human Neural Stem Cells (H9-derived) can grow under both suspension and adherent conditions.
Ordering information—primary astrocytes
Cell type | Size | Cat. No. | Medium |
|---|---|---|---|
Rat cortical astrocytes | 1 x 106 cells | N7745-100 | 85% DMEM (high glucose) and 15% Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) |
Resources and support for primary astrocytes and astrocyte culture
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.