Response to Lamy: Nucleus of Tractus Solitarius Astrocytes as Homeostatic Integrators

We are pleased to respond to the excellent review by Christophe Lamy, which focused on our recent studies in The Journal of Neuroscience characterizing a novel neural-glial interaction in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST). As discussed, our study demonstrated that vagal afferent inputs activate NST astrocytes via AMPA receptors. Lamy provides a clear and focused synopsis of our work with several compelling suggestion for subsequent studies. He also presents some well thought out alternative mechanisms that could account for our observed AMPA receptor mediated increases in astrocytic intracellular calcium levels. Furthermore, his discussion of the astrocyte-to-neuron lactate shuttle theory is well-taken, and presents another compelling neural-glial interaction worthy of further study.