Primary human astrocytes and microglia

U87 MG, an immortalized human astrocytic cell line, was obtained from the ATCC (HTB-14). Cells were maintained in Eagle’s Minimum Essential Medium supplemented with 10% FBS and penicillin/streptomycin. The human microglial cell line, hμglia, was a kind gift from Dr. Jonathan Karn (Case Western Reserve University). These cells were derived from primary human cells transformed with lentiviral vectors expressing SV40 T antigen and hTERT, and have been classified as microglia due to their microglia-like morphology, migratory and phagocytic activity, presence of the microglial cell surface markers CD11b, TGFβR, and P2RY12, and characteristic microglial RNA expression profile [16 (link)]. This cell line was maintained in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium supplemented with 5% FBS and penicillin/streptomycin. Primary human astrocytes and microglia were purchased from ScienCell Research Laboratories (Carlsbad, CA) and were cultured in medium supplied by the vendor.