1. Synaptic plasticity, astrocytes and morphological homeostasis
- Author
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Frank W. Pfrieger, Zbigniew Sołtys, Michal Slezak, Institut des Neurosciences Cellulaires et Intégratives (INCI), Université Louis Pasteur - Strasbourg I-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Bader, Marie-France
- Subjects
[SDV.NEU.NB]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Neurobiology ,Synaptogenesis ,Cell Communication ,[SDV.BC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Cellular Biology ,Neurotransmission ,Biology ,Models, Biological ,Synaptic Transmission ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Physiology (medical) ,Synaptic augmentation ,Metaplasticity ,medicine ,Animals ,Homeostasis ,[SDV.BC] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Cellular Biology ,030304 developmental biology ,Neurons ,0303 health sciences ,Neuronal Plasticity ,General Neuroscience ,[SDV.NEU.NB] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Neurobiology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Synaptic fatigue ,Astrocytes ,Synaptic plasticity ,Synapses ,Neuroglia ,Neuron ,sense organs ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,[SDV.MHEP]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Human health and pathology - Abstract
Recent discoveries suggest that astrocytes are an integral part of synaptic connections, as they sense and modulate synaptic activity. Moreover, there is evidence that astrocytes change the number of synaptic connections directly via synaptogenic signals or indirectly, by modifying the morphology of axons and dendrites. Here, we formulate the hypothesis that astrocytes mediate the morphological homeostasis of nerve cells, which is any adaptation of the morphology of a neuron to preserve its ability to respond to and generate synaptic activity during learning and mernory-induced changes. We argue that astrocytes control neuronal morphology locally and across long-ranging assemblies of neurons and that on the other hand, astrocytes, are part of the engram with plasticity-related changes affecting their morphology.
- Published
- 2006