Visualizing and Analyzing Intracellular Transport of Organelles and Other Cargos in Astrocytes

Astrocytes are among the most abundant cell types in the adult brain, where they play key roles in a multiplicity of functions. As a central player in brain homeostasis, astrocytes supply neurons with vital metabolites and buffer extracellular water, ions, and glutamate. An integral component of the “tri-partite” synapse, astrocytes are also critical in the formation, pruning, maintenance, and modulation of synapses. To enable these highly interactive functions, astrocytes communicate among themselves and with other glial cells, neurons, the brain vasculature, and the extracellular environment through a multitude of specialized membrane proteins that include cell adhesion molecules, aquaporins, ion channels, neurotransmitter transporters, and gap junction molecules. To support this dynamic flux, astrocytes, like neurons, rely on tightly coordinated and efficient intracellular transport. Unlike neurons, where intracellular trafficking has been extensively delineated, microtubule-based transport in astrocytes has been less studied. Nonetheless, exo- and endocytic trafficking of cell membrane proteins and intracellular organelle transport orchestrates astrocytes’ normal biology, and these processes are often affected in disease or in response to injury. Here we present a straightforward protocol to culture high quality murine astrocytes, to fluorescently label astrocytic proteins and organelles of interest, and to record their intracellular transport dynamics using time-lapse confocal microscopy. We also demonstrate how to extract and quantify relevant transport parameters from the acquired movies using available image analysis software (i.e., ImageJ/FIJI) plugins.