APOE-Ɛ4 astrocytes exhibit deficits in endocytic uptake that contribute to the delayed maturation of neuronal network activity and alter neuronal tau uptake in co-cultures of human iPSC-derived brain cells

To explore the mechanistic basis of ApoE Ɛ4 vs ApoE Ɛ3 protein expression on endocytic pathways responsible for tau uptake in neurons and astrocytes and the maturation of neuronal networks, we have developed genotype matched co-cultures of iPSC derived astrocytes and neurons derived from isogenic triads of iPSC lines generated by the ADAPTED consortium (Schmid et al., 2019, 2020) . We show that isogenic iPSC derived APOE-E4 expressing astrocytes take up less extracellular tau than APOE-E3 or APOE null astrocytes, while isogenic neurons in monoculture take up equivalent amounts of tau primarily through macropinocytosis. Co-culture of neurons with genotype matched astrocytes increases the general uptake capacity of neurons by increasing the dependence of neuronal endocytosis on dynamin mediated pathways. Co-culture also enhances the emergence of spontaneous neuronal activity; however, the emergence of synchronous network activity is impaired by the expression of APOE-E4 genotype. We performed RNA-Seq on the astrocytes, neurons and co-cultures to understand the molecular pathway changes associated with different ApoE genotypes.