Bender Crhistian L, Calfa Gaston D, Molina Victor A
IFEC-CONICET, Departamento de Farmacología, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, (5000) Córdoba, Argentina.
IFEC-CONICET, Departamento de Farmacología, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, (5000) Córdoba, Argentina.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2016 Feb 4;65:68-77. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2015.08.005. Epub 2015 Aug 25.
A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that astrocytes play a pivotal role in the normal functioning of the nervous system. This new conceptual framework has set the groundwork to be able to hypothesize that astrocytes could underlie signs and symptoms of mental diseases. Stress is a major risk factor in the etiology of several psychiatric diseases, such as anxiety disorders and depression. Hence, understanding the effects of stress on astrocytes and how these changes contribute to the development of psychiatric endophenotypes is crucial for both a better comprehension of mental illness and for potential targeted treatment of stress-related mental disorders. Here, we describe the currently used approaches and recent evidence showing astrocyte alterations induced by chronic and acute stress in animals. In addition, the relevance of these changes in stress-induced behavioral sequelae and human data linking astrocytes with neuropsychiatric disorders related to stress are also discussed. All together, the data indicate that astrocytes are also an important target of stress, with both chronic and acute stressors being able to alter the morphology or the expression of several astrocyte specific proteins in brain areas that are known to play a critical role in emotional processing, such as the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. Furthermore, different lines of evidences suggest that these changes may contribute, at less in part, to the behavioral consequences of stress.
越来越多的证据表明，星形胶质细胞在神经系统的正常功能中起着关键作用。这一新的概念框架为假设星形胶质细胞可能是精神疾病的体征和症状的基础奠定了基础。压力是几种精神疾病病因中的主要危险因素，如焦虑症和抑郁症。因此，了解压力对星形胶质细胞的影响以及这些变化如何导致精神疾病内表型的发展，对于更好地理解精神疾病和潜在地针对性治疗与压力相关的精神障碍都至关重要。在这里，我们描述了目前使用的方法以及最近的证据，这些证据显示了动物慢性和急性应激诱导的星形胶质细胞改变。此外，还讨论了这些变化在应激诱导的行为后遗症中的相关性以及将星形胶质细胞与与压力相关的神经精神疾病联系起来的人类数据。总体而言，数据表明星形胶质细胞也是压力的重要靶点，慢性和急性应激源都能够改变在情绪处理中起关键作用的脑区（如前额叶皮质、海马体和杏仁核）中几种星形胶质细胞特异性蛋白质的形态或表达。此外，不同的证据表明，这些变化可能至少部分地导致了压力的行为后果。
