Journal Article

Morphological diversification and functional maturation of human astrocytes in glia-enriched cortical organoid transplanted in mouse brain

Parylak, Sarah L., Shokhirev, Maxim N., Andrade, Leonardo R., Manor, Uri, Yu, Jingting, Molina, Elsa, Novak, Sammy Weiser, Gage, Fred H., Williams, April E., Zhang, Lei, Quintero, Cristian, Fernandes, Sarah, Gallina, Iryna S., Wang, Meiyan, Lim, Christina K., Xu, Lynne L., Saxena, Monisha D., Coorapati, Shashank

2025

Overview

Astrocytes, the most abundant glial cell type in the brain, are underrepresented in traditional cortical organoid models due to the delayed onset of cortical gliogenesis. Here we introduce a new glia-enriched cortical organoid model that exhibits accelerated astrogliogenesis. We demonstrated that induction of a gliogenic switch in a subset of progenitors enabled the rapid derivation of astroglial cells, which account for 25–31% of the cell population within 8–10 weeks of differentiation. Intracerebral transplantation of these organoids reliably generated a diverse repertoire of cortical neurons and anatomical subclasses of human astrocytes. Spatial transcriptome profiling identified layer-specific expression patterns among distinct subclasses of astrocytes within organoid transplants. Using an in vivo acute neuroinflammation model, we identified a subpopulation of astrocytes that rapidly activates pro-inflammatory pathways upon cytokine stimulation. Additionally, we demonstrated that CD38 signaling has a crucial role in mediating metabolic and mitochondrial stress in reactive astrocytes. This model provides a robust platform for investigating human astrocyte function. Transplantation of glia-enriched organoids into the mouse brain enables the study of astrocyte subtypes.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group US,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/378/2596/1308 / 631/61/2320 / Agriculture / Animal models / Animals / Astrocytes / Astrocytes - cytology / Astrocytes - metabolism / Bioinformatics / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology / Biomedicine / Biotechnology / Brain / Brain - cytology / Brain - metabolism / CD38 antigen / Cell culture / Cell Differentiation / Cerebral Cortex - cytology / Enrichment / Glial cells / Glial stem cells / Gliogenesis / Humans / In vivo methods and tests / Inflammation / Life Sciences / Mice / Neurogenesis / Neuroglia - cytology / Neuroglia - metabolism / Neuronal-glial interactions / Neurons - cytology / Neurons - metabolism / Organoids / Organoids - cytology / Organoids - metabolism / Organoids - transplantation / Progenitor cells / Transcriptomes / Transplantation / Transplants / Transplants & implants