McCann Heather, Durand Briony, Shepherd Claire E
Neuroscience Research Australia, Barker Street, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia.
Department of Pathology, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia.
Brain Sci. 2021 Jul 13;11(7):927. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11070927.
Astrocytes are of vital importance to neuronal function and the health of the central nervous system (CNS), and astrocytic dysfunction as a primary or secondary event may predispose to neurodegeneration. Until recently, the main astrocytic tauopathies were the frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau (FTLD-tau) group of disorders; however, aging-related tau astrogliopathy (ARTAG) has now been defined. This condition is a self-describing neuropathology mainly found in individuals over 60 years of age. Astrocytic tau accumulates with a thorny or granular/fuzzy morphology and is commonly found in normal aging as well as coexisting with diverse neurodegenerative disorders. However, there are still many unknown factors associated with ARTAG, including the cause/s, the progression, and the nature of any clinical associations. In addition to FTLD-tau, ARTAG has recently been associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), where it has been proposed as a potential precursor to these conditions, with the different ARTAG morphological subtypes perhaps having separate etiologies. This is an emerging area of exciting research that encompasses complex neurobiological and clinicopathological investigation.
星形胶质细胞对神经元功能和中枢神经系统（CNS）的健康至关重要，星形胶质细胞功能障碍作为原发性或继发性事件可能易引发神经退行性变。直到最近，主要的星形胶质细胞tau蛋白病是tau蛋白相关的额颞叶变性（FTLD-tau）疾病组；然而，现在已经定义了与年龄相关的tau蛋白星形胶质细胞病（ARTAG）。这种情况是一种自我描述的神经病理学，主要见于60岁以上的个体。星形胶质细胞tau蛋白以棘状或颗粒状/模糊形态积聚，常见于正常衰老过程中，也与多种神经退行性疾病共存。然而，与ARTAG相关的未知因素仍然很多，包括病因、进展以及任何临床关联的性质。除了FTLD-tau，ARTAG最近还与慢性创伤性脑病（CTE）相关，有人提出它是这些疾病的潜在先兆，不同的ARTAG形态亚型可能有不同的病因。这是一个令人兴奋的新兴研究领域，涵盖了复杂的神经生物学和临床病理学研究。
