Response of neuroglia to hypoxia-induced oxidative stress using enzymatically crosslinked hydrogels.

Three-dimensional cultures have exciting potential to mimic aspects of healthy and diseased brain tissue to examine the role of physiological conditions on neural biomarkers, as well as disease onset and progression. Hypoxia is associated with oxidative stress, mitochondrial damage, and inflammation, key processes potentially involved in Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis. We describe the use of an enzymatically-crosslinkable gelatin hydrogel system within a microfluidic device to explore the effects of hypoxia-induced oxidative stress on rat neuroglia, human astrocyte reactivity, and myelin production. This versatile platform offers new possibilities for drug discovery and modeling disease progression.