Collagen-induced restructuring of astrocytes and vessels in organotypic mouse brain slices.

INTRODUCTION: The brain exhibits high plasticity and responds to many forms of external stimuli, such as trauma, seizures, drugs, and biomaterials. Collagen is a non-toxic biocompatible protein that participates in the plastic reformation of the brain. In this study, we explored whether collagen can reconstruct astrocytes and brain vessels by using microcontact printing on organotypic mouse brain slices. METHODS: Organotypic brain slices from postnatal days 8-10 were prepared and connected to collagen microcontact prints. After 2-6 weeks, glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive (GFAP+) astrocytes and laminin+ vessels were immunohistochemically stained. RESULTS: Our data show that (1) collagen restructures laminin+ vessels in the whole brain slice along 50-µm-wide collagen lanes. (2) This restructuring is linked to the reformation of GFAP+ astrocytes in the collagen-laminin lanes. (3) In contrast to 50 µm lanes, larger 400-µm collagen spots caused a marked depletion forming large holes in the brain slice accompanied with the cell death of GFAP+ astroglia. (4) Preliminary/exploratory data using live cell imaging may indicate that astroglia restructure before the vessels. DISCUSSION: Collagen has the distinctive potential to induce plasticity and the restructuring of vessels and astrocytes, however, collagen may also lead to cell death under certain conditions.