Pharmacological Suppression of CNS Scarring by Deferoxamine Reduces Lesion Volume and Increases Regeneration in an In Vitro Model for Astroglial-Fibrotic Scarring and in Rat Spinal Cord Injury In Vivo
Fig 1
Schematic overview of the in vitro scarring model.
Droplets of cortical astrocytes (A) and meningeal fibroblasts (F) were plated and allowed to grow in monolayers that contacted each other between 7 and 14 days. Then, TGF-β1 was added and incubated for 7 d. During this period, clusters were formed by the fibroblasts and those that appeared at the fibroblast to astrocyte border were surrounded by astrocytes. At 7 d after TGF-β-stimulation, dissociated neonatal cortical neurons (in red) were plated and allowed to grow for another 3 d. Potential scar-reducing treatments were applied starting from the time point of TGF stimulation. (a-d) Immunocytochemical staining for fibronectin (red), GFAP (green) and DAPI (blue) showing no cluster formation in astrocyte–fibroblast co-cultures without TGF-β. (e-h) TGF-β induced cluster formation. Clusters formed at the border of the two cell types consisted of meningeal fibroblasts surrounded by astrocytes (arrows). (i-l) Cluster formation was abolished by the TGF-β inhibitor LY364947. Scale bar = 100 μm.