Haydon Philip G
Department of Neuroscience, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02111, United States.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2017 Jun;44:28-33. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2017.02.008. Epub 2017 Mar 8.
Astrocytes are being identified as having multiple roles in sleep. Initially they were shown to modulate the process of sleep homeostasis through the release of adenosine which acts on adenosine A1 receptors (A1R) to promote sleep drive. More recent studies indicate that the astrocyte also plays pivotal, sleep-dependent roles in 'cleaning the brain' during sleep. This work indicates that a glymphatic pathway that critically relies on astrocytic aquaporin 4, is able to flush solutes from the brain and that deficits in this pathway may contribute to Alzheimer's disease. Finally, astrocytes are known to play important metabolic roles and provide energy on demand to neurons through an astrocyte-neuron shuttle. Given that the time course of astrocytic function is orders of magnitude slower than that of the neuron, this non-neuronal cell is perfectly tuned to modulating slow, state-dependent changes in the brain.
星形胶质细胞在睡眠中被发现具有多种作用。最初，研究表明它们通过释放腺苷来调节睡眠稳态过程，腺苷作用于腺苷A1受体（A1R）以促进睡眠驱动力。最近的研究表明，星形胶质细胞在睡眠期间“清洁大脑”方面也起着关键的、依赖睡眠的作用。这项研究表明，一条严重依赖星形胶质细胞水通道蛋白4的类淋巴途径能够从大脑中清除溶质，而该途径的缺陷可能导致阿尔茨海默病。最后，已知星形胶质细胞具有重要的代谢作用，并通过星形胶质细胞 - 神经元穿梭机制按需为神经元提供能量。鉴于星形胶质细胞功能的时间进程比神经元慢几个数量级，这种非神经元细胞非常适合调节大脑中缓慢的、依赖状态的变化。
