In Vitro Characterization of Streptozotocin-Induced Microglial Responses: Implications for Alzheimer’s Disease Modeling

Streptozotocin (STZ) administered intracerebroventricularly is widely used to model sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in vivo, an approach established in the 1990s. In this context, understanding the response of microglia is particularly relevant, given their key role in maintaining brain homeostasis and mediating neuroinflammatory responses. Considering the central role of microglia in brain homeostasis and neuroinflammatory responses, this study aims to characterize the effects of STZ on BV-2 microglial cells in vitro. Cells will be exposed to increasing STZ concentrations to evaluate changes in cell viability, cell death and morphology. The study will further explore oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation, as well as potential changes in microglial status through the analysis of cellular markers and inflammatory mediators. Acridine Orange/Propidium Iodide staining will be used to characterize changes in viable and non-viable cell populations. Preliminary MTT results indicate that STZ exposure affects BV-2 cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner. Ongoing experiments will further characterize the cellular responses induced by STZ and determine whether different concentrations differentially affect microglial survival, oxidative status and cellular phenotype. This approach may provide new insights into the direct effects of STZ on microglia and contribute to a better understanding of its use as an experimental model of sporadic AD. *Facundo Peralta & Camila Juan have equal contribution