Optical modulation of astrocyte network using ultrashort pulsed laser

Abstract

Astrocyte, the most abundant cell type in the central nervous system, has been one of major topics in neuroscience. Even though many tools have been developed for the analysis of astrocyte function, there has been no adequate tool that can modulates astrocyte network without pharmaceutical or genetic interventions. Here we found that ultrashort pulsed laser stimulation can induce label-free activation of astrocytes as well as apoptotic-like cell death in a dose-dependent manner. Upon irradiation with high intensity pulsed lasers, the irradiated cells with short exposure time showed very rapid mitochondria fragmentation, membrane blebbing and cytoskeletal retraction. We applied this technique to investigate in vivo function of astrocyte network in the CNS: in the aspect of neurovascular coupling and blood-brain barrier. We propose that this noninvasive technique can be widely applied for in vivo study of complex cellular network.