Physiology and Physiopathology of the Gliovascular Unit Research Group, Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology (CIRB), College de France, CNRS Unité Mixte de Recherche 724, INSERM Unité 1050, Labex Memolife, PSL Research University, F-75005 Paris, France.
École doctorale Cerveau Cognition Comportement 'ED3C' No. 158, Pierre and Marie Curie University, F-75005 Paris, France.
J Cell Sci. 2021 Jan 22;134(2):jcs251629. doi: 10.1242/jcs.251629.
Together with the compartmentalization of mRNAs in distal regions of the cytoplasm, local translation constitutes a prominent and evolutionarily conserved mechanism mediating cellular polarization and the regulation of protein delivery in space and time. The translational regulation of gene expression enables a rapid response to stimuli or to a change in the environment, since the use of pre-existing mRNAs can bypass time-consuming nuclear control mechanisms. In the brain, the translation of distally localized mRNAs has been mainly studied in neurons, whose cytoplasmic protrusions may be more than 1000 times longer than the diameter of the cell body. Importantly, alterations in local translation in neurons have been implicated in several neurological diseases. Astrocytes, the most abundant glial cells in the brain, are voluminous, highly ramified cells that project long processes to neurons and brain vessels, and dynamically regulate distal synaptic and vascular functions. Recent research has demonstrated the presence of local translation at these astrocytic interfaces that might regulate the functional compartmentalization of astrocytes. In this Review, we summarize our current knowledge about the localization and local translation of mRNAs in the distal perisynaptic and perivascular processes of astrocytes, and discuss their possible contribution to the molecular and functional polarity of astrocytes.
与细胞质远端区域的 mRNA 分隔化一起，局部翻译构成了介导细胞极化和时空调节蛋白质递呈的一个突出且进化上保守的机制。基因表达的翻译调控能够快速响应刺激或环境变化，因为使用预先存在的 mRNA 可以绕过耗时的核控制机制。在大脑中，远距离定位 mRNAs 的翻译主要在神经元中进行研究，其细胞质突起的长度可能比细胞体的直径长 1000 多倍。重要的是，神经元中局部翻译的改变与几种神经疾病有关。星形胶质细胞是大脑中最丰富的神经胶质细胞，是体积庞大、高度分支的细胞，向神经元和脑血管伸出长突起，并动态调节远端突触和血管功能。最近的研究表明，在这些星形胶质细胞的界面存在局部翻译，可能调节星形胶质细胞的功能分隔。在这篇综述中，我们总结了我们目前对 mRNAs 在星形胶质细胞的突触旁和血管周围远端突起中的定位和局部翻译的认识，并讨论了它们对星形胶质细胞的分子和功能极性的可能贡献。
