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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."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday June 20 2018, @08:51PM (1 child)
Yep. There are still doctors like that, too. And generally speaking staff likes to make sure physicians have what they need to be able to treat patients with maximum concentration. But a hospital nurse is not the physician's employee nor is the physician likely the nurse's supervisor anymore, as it would be in a private practice office. Most hospitals are aligned with the supervisory chain such that a nurse's supervisor is another nurse all the way up to a Chief Nurse level. Which doesn't mean the nurse can't be deferential, or that nurses no longer carry out physician orders.
It also didn't used to be that a nurse would be sued for malpractice - all patient care responsibility was that of the physician and it was only the physician's license on the line for anything but gross negligence. Those days are gone, too. And as physicians are no longer held solely responsible for patient care the environment must change to recognize that. (Or go downhill, fast.)
Hospitals that refuse to acknowledge this will find themselves losing to those that practice collaborative healthcare models.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 20 2018, @09:14PM
Yep, tried to get my Father in law checked out of one SNF to transfer to another basically across the street. Called, spoke with 3 or 4 people who seemed to be "in charge" and competent, had it all arranged, then showed up to do the transfer and all we had were nurses on staff - and they took an hour to moxie up the courage to let us take him out AMA (against medical advice) because, god forbid, they might get in trouble if they did anything like authorize a discharge that's been set up six ways from Sunday but they can't find the authorization for it. They weren't acting like "oh I might get in trouble" refusing to help they were acting like "ain't no way in hell I'm going to let this happen to me or any other nurse in here 'cause it could screw us for life."
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