Departments of Neurobiology, Ophthalmology, and Cell Biology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, 27710, USA.
Departments of Neurobiology, Ophthalmology, and Cell Biology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, 27710, USA.
Dev Biol. 2021 Oct;478:144-154. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2021.07.007. Epub 2021 Jul 11.
Throughout the central nervous system, astrocytes adopt precisely ordered spatial arrangements of their somata and arbors, which facilitate their many important functions. Astrocyte pattern formation is particularly important in the retina, where astrocytes serve as a template that dictates the pattern of developing retinal vasculature. Thus, if astrocyte patterning is disturbed, there are severe consequences for retinal angiogenesis and ultimately for vision - as seen in diseases such as retinopathy of prematurity. Here we discuss key steps in development of the retinal astrocyte population. We describe how fundamental developmental forces - their birth, migration, proliferation, and death - sculpt astrocytes into a template that guides angiogenesis. We further address the radical changes in the cellular and molecular composition of the astrocyte network that occur upon completion of angiogenesis, paving the way for their adult functions in support of retinal ganglion cell axons. Understanding development of retinal astrocytes may elucidate pattern formation mechanisms that are deployed broadly by other axon-associated astrocyte populations.
在中枢神经系统中，星形胶质细胞的胞体和树突呈现出精确有序的空间排列，这有助于它们发挥许多重要的功能。星形胶质细胞的形态发生在视网膜中尤为重要，在那里，星形胶质细胞充当模板，决定了发育中的视网膜血管系统的模式。因此，如果星形胶质细胞的形态发生紊乱，视网膜血管生成会受到严重影响，最终会影响视力——早产儿视网膜病变等疾病就是如此。在这里，我们讨论了视网膜星形胶质细胞群体发育的关键步骤。我们描述了基本的发育力量——它们的诞生、迁移、增殖和死亡——如何将星形胶质细胞塑造成一个模板，指导血管生成。我们进一步探讨了血管生成完成后星形胶质细胞网络的细胞和分子组成发生的根本性变化，为它们在支持视网膜神经节细胞轴突的成年功能铺平了道路。了解视网膜星形胶质细胞的发育可能阐明了广泛应用于其他与轴突相关的星形胶质细胞群体的形态发生机制。
