Modeling the acutely injured brain environment in vitro.
A major challenge to study the regenerative potential of the injured brain is the limited access to this organ in vivo. To address this, we developed an innovative gliosis model that, although established in vitro, originates from a genuine injury in vivo. The model relies on reactive glia acquiring enhanced adhesion, facilitating their rapid adaptation to in vitro conditions, where it faithfully recapitulates key features of brain injury. These include a secretome associated with injury pathways, degenerative responses like neuronal death and neuroinflammation, and regenerative processes such as progenitor proliferation, recruitment and commitment to oligodendrocytes. Moreover, the exposure of adult glial cells to this culture medium recapitulates their acquisition of multipotency observed in both mouse and human injured brains. Finally, our approach allows studying glia-to-neuron reprogramming, a process challenging to tackle in vivo. Consequently, we present a novel tool for exploring stem cell dynamics and regenerative behaviors in CNS pathology.