The effects of cerebral ischemia on perineuronal glia were studied in the rat model of transient four-vessel occlusion. Striatum containing irreversibly injured neurons and paramedian cerebral cortex containing reversibly injured neurons were prepared for electron microscopy at intervals of 3 min up to 24 h following ischemia. Perineuronal astrocytes showed cytoplasmic swelling and configuratio...

Neuronal progenitors in the mammalian brain derive from radial glia or specialized astrocytes. In developing neural retina, radial glia-like Müller cells are generated late in neurogenesis and are not considered to be neuronal progenitors, but they do proliferate after injury and can express neuronal markers, suggesting a latent neurogenic capacity. To examine the neurogenic capacity of retinal...

Contrary to our knowledge of the genetic control of midline crossing, the mechanisms that generate and maintain the longitudinal axon pathways of the Drosophila CNS are largely unknown. The longitudinal pathways are formed by ipsilateral pioneer axons and the longitudinal glia. The longitudinal glia dictate these axonal trajectories and provide trophic support to later projecting follower neuro...

Adult glia are capable of at least limited myelination of CNS axons. However, it is difficult to quantitate their myelination or migratory capacities and to examine contributions of the CNS environment or exogenous factors that might promote or inhibit this process in situ. We have therefore developed a mouse tissue culture system in which optic nerve glia (in the form of appropriately handled ...

Emerging evidence in both vertebrates and invertebrates is redefining glia as active players in the development and integrity of the nervous system. The formation of functional neuronal circuits requires the precise addition of new synapses. Mounting evidence implicates glial function in synapse remodeling and formation. However, the precise molecular mechanisms governing these functions are po...

Crosstalk between neurons and glia may constitute a significant part of information processing in the brain. We present a novel method of statistically identifying interactions in a neuron-glia network. We attempted to identify neuron-glia interactions from neuronal and glial activities via maximum-a-posteriori (MAP)-based parameter estimation by developing a generalized linear model (GLM) of a...

Organ growth requires the coordinated invasion and expansion of blood vessel networks directed by tissue-resident cells and morphogenetic cues. A striking example of this intercellular communication is the vascularization of the central nervous system (CNS), which is driven by neuronal progenitors, including neuroepithelial cells and radial glia. Although the importance of neuronal progenitors ...

Notch signaling is known to play important roles during retinal development. Recently, Notch signaling has been shown to be active in proliferating Müller glia in acutely damaged chick retina (Hayes et al., 2007). However, the roles of Notch in mature, undamaged retina remain unknown. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the role of the Notch-signaling pathway in the postnatal retin...

Neurons and glia are often derived from common multipotent stem cells. In Drosophila, neural identity appears to be the default fate of these precursors. Stem cells that generate either neurons or glia transiently express neural stem cell-specific markers. Further development as glia requires the activation of glial-specific regulators. However, this must be accompanied by simultaneous repressi...

Although glia are known to be sensitive to exogenously applied neurotransmitter substances, little is known about how glia respond to neuronal activity on the millisecond time scale of individual synaptic events. We have explored the electrophysiological effects of excitatory neuronal signaling on glial cells in rat hippocampal microcultures. Exogenous applications of glutamate analogs to islan...