With advanced technology platforms and extensive expertise, Creative Biolabs is dedicated to developing custom astrocyte assay services for our global clients.

Background of the Astrocyte

As a kind of non-neuronal cell, the astrocyte is an important part of the central nervous system (CNS) cell population. A growing number of studies have found that astrocytes play important roles in supporting neuronal development and homeostasis. Among the functions, astrocytes can not only maintain the homeostasis of neurons, but also guide the formation and maturation of synapses by secreting some key molecules. In addition, astrocytes drive the expression of hormones by acting as cellular sensors for oxidative stress, affecting the surrounding cellular microenvironment.

As the critical role of astrocytes in maintaining neuronal development and homeostasis, when they are loss-of-function, which could lead to a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, the study of astrocytes will contribute to the mechanism discovery and therapeutic development of neurological diseases. Creative Biolabs’ scientists are dedicated to bringing together years of valuable experience to provide one-stop astrocyte assay services to reduce the overall project development timeline for our clients.

Tumor Cell-Astrocyte Co-culture Assay

Astrocytes have been shown to have multiple functions in brain metastases. On the one hand, activated astrocytes could cause tumor cell death by releasing soluble killing factor FasL in the microenvironment. On the other hand, astrocytes have pre-metastatic functions by increasing the survival of invasive cancer cells, trans-BBB migration, and so on. To facilitate the clients’ study of the effect of astrocytes on cancer, Creative Biolabs has developed custom cancer-astrocyte coculture assays under both two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) conditions. We are dedicated to designing comprehensive research practices and handling high-quality in vitro studies to support your project.

Fig.1 Cancer-astrocyte coculture assays under 2-D and 3-D conditions. (Zou, 2019)

Astrocyte Phenotypic-based Drug Screening

Since astrocyte dysfunction has been implicated to be involved in the onset of many neurodegenerative diseases, astrocytes are an attractive new target for drug discovery in neurological disorders. Based on our senior research team, we have developed an integrated assay service to screen and identify compounds that protect against oxidative stress based on phenotypic and functional changes in astrocytes, which are associated with many neurodegenerative diseases.

Fig.2 The astrocyte phenotypic-based high-content oxidative stress assay. (Thorne, 2016)

In Vitro Astrocyte Migration Assay

In addition, astrocytes are involved in a variety of CNS pathologic processes, including trauma, viral or bacterial infection, and neurodegeneration. These processes are associated with increased motility of astrocytes. With advanced technology platforms, Creative Biolabs has robustly developed a complete set of scratch induced migration experiments to further provide customers with astrocyte related studies.

For further details, please don't hesitate to contact us or directly sent us an inquiry.

References

1. Zou, Y.; et al. Polyunsaturated fatty acids from astrocytes activate PPARγ signaling in cancer cells to promote brain metastasis. Cancer discovery. 2019, 1;9(12): 1720-35.
2. Thorne, N.; et al. High-throughput phenotypic screening of human astrocytes to identify compounds that protect against oxidative stress. Stem cells translational medicine. 2016, 5(5): 613-27.
3. Etienne-Manneville, S. In vitro assay of primary astrocyte migration as a tool to study Rho GTPase function in cell polarization. Methods in enzymology. 2006, 1;406: 565-78.

For Research Use Only | Not For Clinical Use