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Plasticity of Astrocytic Coverage and Glutamate Transporter Expression in Adult Mouse Cortex

Astrocytes play a major role in the removal of glutamate from the extracellular compartment. This clearance limits the glutamate receptor activation and affects the synaptic response. This function of the astrocyte is dependent on its positioning around the synapse, as well as on the level of expres...

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Autores principales: Genoud, Christel, Quairiaux, Charles, Steiner, Pascal, Hirling, Harald, Welker, Egbert, Knott, Graham W
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2006
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1609127/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17048987
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040343
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author Genoud, Christel
Quairiaux, Charles
Steiner, Pascal
Hirling, Harald
Welker, Egbert
Knott, Graham W
author_facet Genoud, Christel
Quairiaux, Charles
Steiner, Pascal
Hirling, Harald
Welker, Egbert
Knott, Graham W
author_sort Genoud, Christel
collection PubMed
description Astrocytes play a major role in the removal of glutamate from the extracellular compartment. This clearance limits the glutamate receptor activation and affects the synaptic response. This function of the astrocyte is dependent on its positioning around the synapse, as well as on the level of expression of its high-affinity glutamate transporters, GLT1 and GLAST. Using Western blot analysis and serial section electron microscopy, we studied how a change in sensory activity affected these parameters in the adult cortex. Using mice, we found that 24 h of whisker stimulation elicited a 2-fold increase in the expression of GLT1 and GLAST in the corresponding cortical column of the barrel cortex. This returns to basal levels 4 d after the stimulation was stopped, whereas the expression of the neuronal glutamate transporter EAAC1 remained unaltered throughout. Ultrastructural analysis from the same region showed that sensory stimulation also causes a significant increase in the astrocytic envelopment of excitatory synapses on dendritic spines. We conclude that a period of modified neuronal activity and synaptic release of glutamate leads to an increased astrocytic coverage of the bouton–spine interface and an increase in glutamate transporter expression in astrocytic processes.
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spelling pubmed-16091272006-11-17 Plasticity of Astrocytic Coverage and Glutamate Transporter Expression in Adult Mouse Cortex Genoud, Christel Quairiaux, Charles Steiner, Pascal Hirling, Harald Welker, Egbert Knott, Graham W PLoS Biol Research Article Astrocytes play a major role in the removal of glutamate from the extracellular compartment. This clearance limits the glutamate receptor activation and affects the synaptic response. This function of the astrocyte is dependent on its positioning around the synapse, as well as on the level of expression of its high-affinity glutamate transporters, GLT1 and GLAST. Using Western blot analysis and serial section electron microscopy, we studied how a change in sensory activity affected these parameters in the adult cortex. Using mice, we found that 24 h of whisker stimulation elicited a 2-fold increase in the expression of GLT1 and GLAST in the corresponding cortical column of the barrel cortex. This returns to basal levels 4 d after the stimulation was stopped, whereas the expression of the neuronal glutamate transporter EAAC1 remained unaltered throughout. Ultrastructural analysis from the same region showed that sensory stimulation also causes a significant increase in the astrocytic envelopment of excitatory synapses on dendritic spines. We conclude that a period of modified neuronal activity and synaptic release of glutamate leads to an increased astrocytic coverage of the bouton–spine interface and an increase in glutamate transporter expression in astrocytic processes. Public Library of Science 2006-11 2006-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC1609127/ /pubmed/17048987 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040343 Text en © 2006 Genoud et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Genoud, Christel
Quairiaux, Charles
Steiner, Pascal
Hirling, Harald
Welker, Egbert
Knott, Graham W
Plasticity of Astrocytic Coverage and Glutamate Transporter Expression in Adult Mouse Cortex
title Plasticity of Astrocytic Coverage and Glutamate Transporter Expression in Adult Mouse Cortex
title_full Plasticity of Astrocytic Coverage and Glutamate Transporter Expression in Adult Mouse Cortex
title_fullStr Plasticity of Astrocytic Coverage and Glutamate Transporter Expression in Adult Mouse Cortex
title_full_unstemmed Plasticity of Astrocytic Coverage and Glutamate Transporter Expression in Adult Mouse Cortex
title_short Plasticity of Astrocytic Coverage and Glutamate Transporter Expression in Adult Mouse Cortex
title_sort plasticity of astrocytic coverage and glutamate transporter expression in adult mouse cortex
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1609127/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17048987
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040343
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