Astrocytes release a variety of signaling molecules including glutamate, D-serine, and ATP in a regulated manner. Although the functions of these molecules, from regulating synaptic transmission to controlling specific behavior, are well documented, the identity of their cellular compartment(s) is still unclear. Here we set out to study vesicular exocytosis and glutamate release in mouse hippoc...

Astrocytes are glial cells that play a crucial role in providing a supportive environment for neurons, mainly by cellcell interactions mediating numerous physiological and biochemical functions in the central nervous system (CNS). Astrocytes are also critical for intercellular signaling in the neurovascular unit. Although numerous reports have detailed the complex effects of astrocytes upon neu...

Immunohistochemical location of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) was used to compare the morphology of astrocytes in vascularized and partially vascularized retinae (human and rabbit, respectively). Astrocytes in human and rabbit retinae were found in the same regions as the blood vessels. These cells in partially vascularized retinae differed from those in vascularized retina in several ...

Astrocyte dysfunction and neuroinflammation are detrimental features in multiple pathologies of the CNS. Therefore, the development of methods that produce functional human astrocytes represents an advance in the study of neurological diseases. Here we report an efficient method for inflammation-responsive astrocyte generation from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and embryonic stem cells...

The prevailing view of the astrocytic response to injury is that reactive astrocytes impede the regenerative process by forming scar tissue. As the levels of many cytokines dramatically increase following CNS insult and as this increase in cytokine expression precedes the production of the glial scar, a longstanding view has been that cytokines diminish neuronal survival and regeneration by sti...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES The distribution of brain interleukin-6 (IL-6) may be asymmetrical both in cortex and hippocampus. While the brain asymmetry has been extensively investigated, the cellular origin of asymmetrical cytokine induction in the cortex has not been addressed. It was hypothesized that the immune function of glia cell to the inflammatory insults is asymmetrically distributed in t...

A well-controlled T cell response to CNS injury may result in increased neuronal survival. However, the precise mechanism of T cell-induced neuroprotection is unknown. In this study, we report the unexpected finding that during culture of T cells, high levels of glutamate accumulate, which are efficiently cleared if T cells are cocultured with astrocytes. The T cell-derived glutamate elicits in...