Pfrieger Frank W
Max-Planck/CNRS Group, UPR2356, Centre de Neurochimie, Strasbourg, France.
Bioessays. 2003 Jan;25(1):72-8. doi: 10.1002/bies.10195.
Brain function depends on the cooperation between highly specialized cells. Neurons generate electrical signals and glial cells provide structural and metabolic support. Here, I propose a new kind of job-sharing between neurons and astrocytes. Recent studies on primary cultures of highly purified neurons from the rodent central nervous system (CNS) suggest that, during development, neurons reduce or even abandon cholesterol synthesis to save energy and import cholesterol from astrocytes via lipoproteins. The cholesterol shuttle may be restricted to compartments distant from the soma including synapses and may be regulated by electrical activity. Testing these hypotheses will help to improve our still insufficient understanding of brain cholesterol metabolism and its role in neurodegeneration.
脑功能依赖于高度特化细胞之间的协作。神经元产生电信号，而神经胶质细胞提供结构和代谢支持。在此，我提出一种神经元与星形胶质细胞之间新型的工作分担方式。近期对来自啮齿动物中枢神经系统（CNS）的高度纯化神经元原代培养物的研究表明，在发育过程中，神经元会减少甚至放弃胆固醇合成以节省能量，并通过脂蛋白从星形胶质细胞中摄取胆固醇。胆固醇转运可能局限于远离胞体的区域，包括突触，并且可能受电活动调节。对这些假说进行验证将有助于改善我们目前对脑胆固醇代谢及其在神经退行性变中作用的仍不充分的理解。
