The Secretome of Microglia Regulate Neural Stem Cell Function

• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.10.034
• Publication Date: 2017-11-01T07:45:13Z
• Authors: Ahmed M. Osman; Johanna Rodhe; Xianli Shen; Cecilia A. Dominguez; Bertrand Joseph; Klas Blomgren
• Keywords: Lipopolysaccharides; 0301 basic medicine; Cell Differentiation; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Neural Stem Cells; Cell Movement; Astrocytes; Culture Media, Conditioned; Animals; Cytokines; Interleukin-4; Microglia

Brain injury is associated with neuroinflammation, and microglia are key players in this process. Microglia can acquire pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory properties, but how this affects neural stem cells (NSCs) remains controversial. Here, NSCs were grown in conditioned media collected from either non-stimulated microglia, or microglia stimulated with pro- or anti-inflammatory agents. NSC survival, proliferation, migration, and differentiation were investigated thereafter. We found that NSCs kept in conditioned medium from the anti-inflammatory microglial subtype had better survival, increased migration, and lower astrocytic differentiation compared to NSCs grown in conditioned medium collected from the pro-inflammatory subtype. Finally, we found that NSCs differentiated in microglial conditioned media generated cells expressing the pro-inflammatory chemokine CCL2, most pronounced when differentiated in medium from the pro-inflammatory microglia subtype. Our results show that microglial subtypes regulate NSCs differently and induce generation of cells with inflammatory properties.