Intensive experimental studies have shown that astrocytes are active partners in modulation of synaptic transmission. In the present research, we study neuron-astrocyte signaling using a biologically inspired model of one neuron synapsing one astrocyte. In this model, the firing dynamics of the neuron is described by the Morris-Lecar model and the Ca(2+) dynamics of a single astrocyte explained...

Astrocytes contribute to many neuronal functions, including synaptogenesis, but their role in the development of synaptic plasticity remains unclear. Presynaptic muting of hippocampal glutamatergic terminals defends against excitotoxicity. Here we studied the role of astrocytes in the development of presynaptic muting at glutamatergic synapses in rat hippocampal neurons. We found that astrocyte...

Astrocyte-rich and astrocyte-poor cultures derived from embryonic rat cerebral cortex were compared to determine whether differences in the location of neuronal somas, dendrites, axons, synapses or astrocytes, relative to the bulk culture medium, could help to explain the large difference in neuronal susceptibility to glutamate toxicity between the two culture systems. The cultures were process...

Purpose: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal that resulted in irreversible neuronal loss, glial scar formation and axonal injury. Herein, we used human amniotic fluid mesenchymal stem cells (hAF-MSCs) their conditioned medium (CM), investigate ability neuroblast astrocyte production as well functional recovery following SCI. Methods: Fifty-four adult rats were randomly divided into...

BACKGROUND Besides their neuronal support functions, astrocytes are active partners in neuronal information processing. The typical territorial structure of astrocytes (the volume of neuropil occupied by a single astrocyte) is pivotal for many aspects of glia-neuron interactions. METHODS Individual astrocyte territorial volumes are measured by Golgi impregnation, and astrocyte densities are d...

The ability of astrocytes to secrete proteins subserves many of its known function, such as synapse formation during development and extracellular matrix remodeling after cellular injury. Protein secretion may also play an important, but less clear, role in the propagation of inflammatory responses and neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis. While potential astrocyte-secreted proteins may numbe...

It is well known that increased cAMP levels in cultured astrocytes can convert flat polygonal shaped astrocytes into process-bearing, stellate astrocytes. In this study, we have examined the possible existence of astrocyte regional heterogeneity in morphological changes in response to cAMP stimulation. Primary astrocyte cultures were prepared from six different regions of neonatal rat brains, i...

Amyloid beta (Aβ) is a peptide cleaved from amyloid precursor protein that contributes to the formation of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The relationship between Aβ and astrocyte proliferation in AD remains controversial. Despite pathological findings of increased astrocytic mitosis in AD brains, in vitro studies show an inhibitory effect of Aβ on astrocyte proliferation. In this ...