The present subject matter provides a microfluidic device that enables the precise and repeatable three dimensional and compartmentalized coculture of muscle cells and neuronal cells. Related apparatus, systems, techniques, and articles are also described.

The present disclosure provides multicellular culture models for the study of neuroinflammation, such as to identify novel targets, biomarkers, and therapeutic agents for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Further provided herein are assays for studying neuroinflammation using the present cell culture models.

The present invention relates to methods of treating or ameliorating certain neurodegenerative disorders (namely, dysmyelinating and demyelinating disorders) in patients in need of such treatment or amelioration. The invention provides methods of treating or ameliorating a patient in need of such treatment and includes the administration to the patient of: (a) thyroid hormones or thyroid hormone analogues; (b) cell replacement therapies involving the use of homogenous Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells derived from embryonic stem cells that have been treated with thyroid hormones or thyroid hormone analogues; (c) gene therapy to correct mutated genes in vivo; or (d) a combination of two or more of (a), (b) and (c). The invention also provides compositions and formulations of thyroid hormones and thyroid hormone analogues for use in treating or ameliorating such disorders.

The invention features methods and compositions that are useful for the treatment of diseases, disorders, conditions, or injuries characterized by insufficient myelination. The methods involve administering GPR17 antagonists and microglia inhibitors or ablation agents.

The present invention provides a method for producing astrocytes from neural progenitor cells, the method comprising: (1) culturing neural progenitor cells in a culture medium comprising a neurotrophic factor; (2) dissociating the cells obtained in the step (1); and (3) subjecting the cells obtained in the step (2) to adherent culture in a culture medium comprising a neurotrophic factor using an uncoated culture vessel.

The present invention relates to a method for generating neuronal and muscular cells from pluripotent stem cells.

The invention provides a cell-containing vessel comprising a plurality of neural cell-containing spheroids for which the variation calculated using the calculation method described below is less than 20%, wherein the neural cell-containing spheroids contain a plurality of types of cells including neural cells,

(Calculation Method)

Calcium transient assays are conducted for each of a plurality of neural cell-containing spheroids, a number of spontaneous oscillations in a 10-minute period is measured, an average and standard deviation for the number of spontaneous oscillations are calculated, and a variation is calculated using formula (1) below:

Variation (%)=standard deviation for number of spontaneous oscillations/average number of spontaneous oscillations×100  (1).

The invention relates to a method of creating a human blood-brain barrier (BBB) model from the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), wherein the BBB exhibits sustained transendothelial electrical resistances (TEER) over 2000 Ω.Math.cm.sup.2 for at least 3 days after seeding.

Provided are biomaterials useful for cell culture, method of preparation thereof, and use thereof. The present biomaterial comprises a crosslinked hydrogel and a peptide chemically attached to the hydrogel, wherein the peptide comprises a histidine-alanine-valine (HAV) sequence. In particular, the present biomaterial may be useful for culturing neurons, brain endothelial cells, and/or glial cells, supporting the formation of synaptically connected neural networks, and growing stem cell-derived organoids that more closely resemble human organs.

A method for producing astrocytes includes a step of dissociating an embryoid body into single cells and suspension-culturing the cells in a serum-free medium containing basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) to obtain a neural stem cell mass, and a step of dissociating the neural stem cell mass into single cells and adhesion-culturing the cells in a serum-free medium to obtain a cell population containing astrocytes.