Human Astrocytes (iPSC-derived, Parkinson's Disease Patient, Sporadic)

Overview

Human Astrocytes (iPSC-derived, Parkinson's Disease Patient, Sporadic) is a cell model used for research applications where physiologically relevant identity and donor background support interpretation of experimental readouts. Human Glial associated with Parkinson's Disease Patient, Sporadic within the Nervous system.

Astrocytes are a crucial component of the human central nervous system. Astrocytes’ diverse and heterogeneous character allows them to serve a variety of important activities during brain formation as well as afterwards in neuronal homeostasis and synaptic transmission [1] . Since they engage in the development of synapses, and neurotransmitter recycling, astrocytes are crucial for the construction and plasticity of brain circuits [2] . In addition, astrocytes are immunocompetent cells that participate in neuroinflammation by secreting cytokines and chemokines, which may have protective or detrimental consequences for neuronal survival [3] . iXCells Biotechnologies is proud to provide fully differentiated and functional human iPSC-derived human astrocytes that display typical astrocytic morphology and express key markers of e.g., GFAP, ALDH1L1 (Figure 1A,B) when cultured in the Human Astrocyte Maintenance Medium (Cat# MD-0109-100ML) . In addition, our iPSC-derived Astrocytes can also be co-cultured with cortical neurons or other cell types for drug screening platforms (Figure 1C-E) and can respond to inflammatory stimuli (Figure 2) and moreover affect neurite length of neurons when previously stimulated collected conditioned media is applied (Figure 3). Figure 1. Human iPSCs derived astrocytes show expression of characteristic biological markers. (A) Immunostaining of iPSC-derived astrocytes expressing ALDH1L1 (green), CD44 (red), S100b (red), or GFAP (green) at day 28. All cells were counterstained for DAPI (blue). Scale bars, 200 µm. (B) Quantifications for percentage of astrocytes, positive for the listed markers over DAPI. Results are expressed as means ± SEM. (C) Cortical neurons were differentiated as a monolayer on a MEA plate and co_x0002_cultured with different types of astrocytes, and subsequently neuronal activity was measured. (D) Example raster plot showing spikes (black lines) and network bursts (pink lines) in the MEA for neurons cultured with or without astrocytes. (E) At 5 days of neural differentiation, electrical parameters were measured in the MEA and the results are graphed as mean ± SEM for mean firing rate and number of spikes.

Key elements and design rationale

• Cell identity: Glial (iPSC-Derived Cells)
• Source context: Astrocytes; Nervous
• Donor background: Disease/condition: Parkinson's Disease Patient, Sporadic
• Biosafety level: BSL-2 (follow your institution’s biosafety program and local regulations)
• Growth properties: Adherent

Product-specific elements (such as tissue source, donor background, and cell classification) help frame how results should be interpreted across assays and experimental conditions.

Biological background

Cells originating from the Nervous system are commonly studied to understand tissue-specific physiology, signaling, and responses to perturbations in controlled in vitro settings.

Across primary and specialty cell models, experimental outcomes can be influenced by donor heterogeneity, passage history, confluence, and media composition. For interpretation, it is common to validate key markers or functional phenotypes in the user’s assay context and to document culture variables consistently.

Research relevance and current trends

• Increasing use of primary and specialty cells to improve translational relevance for target biology and phenotypic screening.
• Adoption of 3D culture formats and co-culture systems to better capture tissue microenvironments and cell–cell interactions.
• Integration of functional readouts with single-cell and multi-omics profiling to connect phenotype with molecular state.
• Growth of human-relevant neural models (including glial components) to study circuit- and inflammation-linked phenotypes.

Common research applications

• Profile identity markers by flow cytometry or immunostaining in cultured cells
• Quantify neurite outgrowth and synaptic marker profiles in neural cultures
• Quantify functional responses to defined stimuli relevant to the model system
• Compare baseline phenotype across donors/conditions using gene expression profiling
• Measure neuroinflammatory signaling in neuron–glia or microglia-enriched models

Interpretation typically focuses on how a perturbation (e.g., cytokine exposure, metabolic stress, genetic manipulation, or compound treatment) shifts marker profiles or functional readouts relative to an appropriate control matched for donor and culture variables.

Notes for experimental interpretation

• Donor-to-donor heterogeneity can influence baseline phenotype and treatment response; include biological replicates when feasible.
• Passage number, confluence, and media composition can shift gene expression and functional readouts; track and report these variables consistently.
• Contamination control (including routine mycoplasma monitoring) supports reproducibility in downstream assays.
• Use appropriate negative/positive controls for the readout (e.g., unstimulated controls, pathway agonists/antagonists) to contextualize observed changes.

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Customization & Add-ons: Can't find the cell line you need—or require a custom cell-based solution for your project? We can help you source the best match or support custom cell line services for diverse research needs, including cell line sourcing and selection (species, tissue, and disease model matching), stable cell line engineering (overexpression, knockdown, or knockout via CRISPR/Cas9, shRNA, or sgRNA), reporter gene integration (GFP, RFP, luciferase, and other fluorescent or bioluminescent constructs), genome editing and knockin (point mutations, tagged endogenous proteins, conditional alleles), inducible expression systems (Tet-On/Off and other regulatable constructs), drug resistance marker selection (puromycin, G418, hygromycin, and others), custom growth and media optimisation for specific assay requirements, scale-up production for high-throughput screening campaigns, and authentication and QC services (STR profiling, mycoplasma testing, viability assessment). Click Talk to a Scientist to submit a request, email us at support@biohippo.com, or explore our Research Services for additional support—our team will follow up with feasibility details and next steps.