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Ultrastructural view of astrocyte arborization, astrocyte-astrocyte and astrocyte-synapse contacts, intracellular vesicle-like structures, and mitochondrial network

Progress in Neurobiology, ISSN: 0301-0082, Vol: 213, Page: 102264
2022
  • 58
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 65
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 86
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    58
  • Captures
    65
  • Social Media
    86
    • Shares, Likes & Comments
      86
      • Facebook
        86

Article Description

The complexity of astrocyte morphology and syncytial coupling through gap junctions are crucial for astrocyte function in the brain. However, the ultrastructural details of astrocyte arborization and interactions between neighboring astrocytes remain unknown. While a prevailing view is that synapses selectively contact peripheral astrocyte processes, the precise spatial-location selectivity of synapses abutting astrocytes is unresolved. Additionally, knowing the location and quantity of vesicles and mitochondria are prerequisites to answer two emerging questions - whether astrocytes have a signaling role within the brain and whether astrocytes are highly metabolically active. Here, we provided structural context for these questions by tracing and 3D reconstructing three neighboring astrocytes using serial block-face scanning electron microscopy. Our reconstructions reveal a spongiform astrocytic morphology resulting from the abundance of reflexive and leaflet processes. At the interfaces, varying sizes of astrocyte-astrocyte contacts were identified. Inside an astrocyte domain, synapses contact the entire astrocyte, and synapse-astrocyte contacts increase from soma to terminal leaflets. In contrast to densely packed vesicles at synaptic boutons, vesicle-like structures were scant within astrocytes. Lastly, astrocytes contain dense mitochondrial networks with a mitochondrial volume ratio similar to that of neurites. Together, these ultrastructural details should expand our understanding of functional astrocyte-astrocyte and astrocyte-neuron interactions.

Bibliographic Details

Aten, Sydney; Kiyoshi, Conrad M; Arzola, Emily P; Patterson, Jeremy A; Taylor, Anne T; Du, Yixing; Guiher, Ally M; Philip, Merna; Camacho, Elizabeth Gerviacio; Mediratta, Devin; Collins, Kelsey; Boni, Kirsten; Garcia, Silvana A; Kumar, Rahul; Drake, Aiden N; Hegazi, Ahlam; Trank, Lindsey; Benson, Emily; Kidd, Grahame; Terman, David; Zhou, Min

Elsevier BV

Neuroscience

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