The inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-6 may contribute to astrocyte malfunction in bipolar disorder, researchers say.

The US team had previously published a method for rapidly generating inflammation-responsive astrocytes from human-induced pluripotent stem cells via a glial precursor intermediate.

Using this protocol they studied inflammation-related phenotypes of stem cell-derived astrocytes generated from patients with bipolar disorder and from healthy controls.

“Astrocytes are immunocompetent cells known to participate in the inflammatory cascade within the brain by being activated by pro-inflammatory cytokines … and, in turn, secreting cytokines that participate in the process of neuroinflammation,” said senior author, Dr Maria Marchetto (PhD) of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.