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posted by janrinok on Wednesday June 20 2018, @02:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the forgotten dept.

Glial cells surround neurons and provide support -- not unlike hospital staff and nurses supporting doctors to keep operations running smoothly. These often-overlooked cells, which include oligodendrocytes and astrocytes, are the most abundant cell types in the central nervous system. But these cells do more than support neurons. They also actively influence them, University of California, Riverside, researchers report.

The researchers focused on astrocytes -- star-shaped cells that greatly outnumber neurons -- in mice, and found that when these cells overproduce a protein called ephrin-B1, the ability to retain memory weakens.

"We examined mouse learning behaviors and found that overproduction of this protein in astrocytes can lead to impaired retention of contextual memory and the ability to navigate in space," said Iryna Ethell, a professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine, who led the research. "We think that astrocytes expressing too much of ephrin-B1 can attack neurons and remove synapses, the connections through which neurons communicate."

Such synapse loss is seen in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and multiple sclerosis.

Study results appear in the June 20 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

When Ethell and colleagues examined mouse cell behavior in a petri dish, they found astrocytes were "eating up" synapses when ephrin-B1 was overexpressed, suggesting that glial-neuronal interactions influence learning.

"The overproduction of ephrin-B1 can be a novel mechanism by which unwanted synapses are removed in the healthy brain, with excessive removal leading to neurodegeneration" Ethell said.

[...] Next, the researchers will work on understanding why some astrocytes remove synapses but other astrocytes do not. They also plan to study the role that inhibitory neurons play in the brain to keep it running smoothly.

"What we know for sure is that targeting just neurons for study is ineffective," Ethell said. "It's the glial cells, too, that need our attention. The star-shaped astrocyte is truly a star when it comes to regulating learning and memory."


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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by srobert on Wednesday June 20 2018, @06:13PM

    by srobert (4803) on Wednesday June 20 2018, @06:13PM (#695686)

    Which one of my 60 billion or so glial cells is the one that's the key?

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