Slezak Michal, Pfrieger Frank W, Soltys Zbigniew
Max-Planck/CNRS Group, UPR 2356, Centre de Neurochimie, 5, rue Blaise Pascal, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France.
J Physiol Paris. 2006 Mar-May;99(2-3):84-91. doi: 10.1016/j.jphysparis.2005.12.082. Epub 2006 Feb 3.
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 memory-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.
最近的发现表明，星形胶质细胞是突触连接不可或缺的一部分，因为它们能够感知并调节突触活动。此外，有证据表明，星形胶质细胞可通过突触生成信号直接或通过改变轴突和树突的形态间接改变突触连接的数量。在此，我们提出一个假说：星形胶质细胞介导神经细胞的形态稳态，即神经元形态的任何适应性变化，以在学习和记忆诱导的变化过程中保持其对突触活动做出反应并产生突触活动的能力。我们认为，星形胶质细胞在局部以及跨远距离的神经元集合中控制神经元形态，另一方面，星形胶质细胞是记忆印迹的一部分，与可塑性相关的变化会影响其形态。
