Departments of Physiology and Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA; email:
Department of Neuroscience and Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA; email:
Annu Rev Neurosci. 2019 Jul 8;42:187-207. doi: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-070918-050443.
Astrocytes are morphologically complex, ubiquitous cells that are viewed as a homogeneous population tiling the entire central nervous system (CNS). However, this view has been challenged in the last few years with the availability of RNA sequencing, immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, morphological reconstruction, and imaging data. These studies suggest that astrocytes represent a diverse population of cells and that they display brain area- and disease-specific properties and functions. In this review, we summarize these observations, emphasize areas where clear conclusions can be made, and discuss potential unifying themes. We also identify knowledge gaps that need to be addressed in order to exploit astrocyte diversity as a biological phenomenon of physiological relevance in the CNS. We thus provide a summary and a perspective on astrocyte diversity in the vertebrate CNS.
星形胶质细胞形态复杂，广泛存在，被视为遍布整个中枢神经系统（CNS）的同质群体。然而，随着 RNA 测序、免疫组织化学、电子显微镜、形态重建和成像数据的出现，这种观点在过去几年中受到了挑战。这些研究表明，星形胶质细胞代表了一个多样化的细胞群体，它们表现出脑区和疾病特异性的特性和功能。在这篇综述中，我们总结了这些观察结果，强调了可以得出明确结论的领域，并讨论了潜在的统一主题。我们还确定了需要解决的知识空白，以便将星形胶质细胞的多样性作为 CNS 中具有生理相关性的生物学现象加以利用。因此，我们提供了一个关于脊椎动物 CNS 中星形胶质细胞多样性的总结和观点。
