astrocyte
astro.site · being built
| What it is | A glial cell of the brain and spinal cord whose bushy processes wrap synapses and whose endfeet sheathe the blood vessels. |
|---|---|
| Comes from | Neural stem cell (radial glia) |
| About | Protoplasmic astrocytes in the human neocortex are 2.6-fold larger in diameter and extend 10-fold more GFAP-positive primary processes than their rodent counterparts, and they propagate calcium waves at 36 um/s. |
| Source | Oberheim NA, Takano T, Han X, He W, Lin JH, Wang F, et al. Uniquely hominid features of adult human astrocytes. J Neurosci. 2009;29(10):3276-87. PMID: 19279265 |
| Status | being built; its twin, knowledge and helper come with astro.site |
Where it lives
| Grey matter neuropil, in an exclusive territory that neighbouring astrocytes do not enter | rat · PMID 11756501 |
| On the brain's capillaries, where interdigitating endfeet cover the endothelial tube completely | rat · PMID 20468051 |
| Astrocytes outnumber neurons more than fivefold and tile the entire central nervous system | human and mouse · PMID 20012068 |
What it does
| Propagates calcium waves at 36 um/s and responds to glutamate and ATP | human · PMID 19279265 |
| Holds glycogen as puncta in its processes, high in cortex and hippocampus, low in white matter | mouse · PMID 27353480 |
| Controls water and solute exchange at the blood-brain interface through its endfeet | rat · PMID 20468051 |
What goes wrong
| After any CNS insult it turns reactive: hypertrophy, then a glial scar that rearranges the tissue | human and mouse · PMID 20012068 |