Diversity of astrocyte functions and phenotypes in neural circuits

By B. Khakh, M. Sofroniew. Nature Neuroscience, 2015

1,123 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Astrocytes tile the entire CNS. They are vital for neural circuit function, but have traditionally been viewed as simple, homogenous cells that serve the same essential supportive roles everywhere. Here, we summarize breakthroughs that instead indicate that astrocytes represent a population of complex and functionally diverse cells. Physiological diversity of astrocytes is apparent between different brain circuits and microcircuits, and individual astrocytes display diverse signaling in subcellular compartments. With respect to injury and disease, astrocytes undergo diverse phenotypic changes that may be protective or causative with regard to pathology in a context-dependent manner. These new insights herald the concept that astrocytes represent a diverse population of genetically tractable cells that mediate neural circuit–specific roles in health and disease.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Neurology, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/38151aea1dc67c0157393594acb5f4dfbb014aa7

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In Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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Citations in the corpus

Astrocyte reactivity: Subtypes, states and functions in CNS innate immunity (2020, background): “Moreover, recent evidence suggests that reactive astrocytes can contribute to synapse remodeling and circuit reorganization [6, 33, 37], and even the longstanding view that reactive astrocytes are the primary cause for the failure CNS axon regeneration has been overturned [57, 69, 76, 77].”
Type I interferons and microbial metabolites of tryptophan modulate astrocyte activity and CNS inflammation via the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (2016, positive): “However, expression of chemokines (for instance, Ccl2, Ccl20 and Cxcl10), cytokines (e.g. Il6, Il12, Il23) and pro-inflammatory markers such as Vim, Nos2, and Csf2 was increased in AhR-deficient astrocytes during EAE (Fig.”
Imaging brain microstructure with diffusion MRI: practicality and applications (2019, background): “constantly growing; see [54] for a review of current understanding.”
Impact of microbiota on central nervous system and neurological diseases: the gut-brain axis (2019, background): “Similar to microglia, astrocytes have multiple essential functions in the maintenance of CNS integrity, including control of blood perfusion in cerebrum, maintenance of brain–blood barrier (BBB) stability, regulation of ion gradient balance, and modulation of neuron or nutrient transmission [84].”