Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Structural Remodeling of Astrocytes in the Injured CNS

Get your researchers to come up with a theory on how to use this information to repair our brains.
http://nro.sagepub.com/content/18/6/567.abstract?etoc

Abstract

Astrocytes respond to all forms of CNS insult and disease by becoming reactive, a nonspecific but highly characteristic response that involves various morphological and molecular changes. Probably the most recognized aspect of reactive astrocytes is the formation of a glial scar that impedes axon regeneration. Although the reactive phenotype was first suggested more than 100 years ago based on morphological changes, the remodeling process is not well understood. We know little about the actual structure of a reactive astrocyte, how an astrocyte remodels during the progression of an insult, and how populations of these cells reorganize to form the glial scar. New methods of labeling astrocytes, along with transgenic mice, allow the complete morphology of reactive astrocytes to be visualized. Recent studies show that reactivity can induce a remarkable change in the shape of a single astrocyte, that not all astrocytes react in the same way, and t

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