Instituto Cajal, CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
Institute for Biomedical Research of Barcelona, CSIC, CIBERNED, Barcelona, Spain.
Nat Commun. 2022 Sep 7;13(1):5272. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33020-6.
Astrocytes are key elements of brain circuits that are involved in different aspects of the neuronal physiology relevant to brain functions. Although much effort is being made to understand how the biology of astrocytes affects brain circuits, astrocytic network heterogeneity and plasticity is still poorly defined. Here, we have combined structural and functional imaging of astrocyte activity recorded in mice using the Ca-modulated photoactivatable ratiometric integrator and specific optostimulation of glutamatergic pathways to map the functional neuron-astrocyte circuitries in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). We showed pathway-specific astrocytic responses induced by selective optostimulation of main inputs from the prefrontal cortex, basolateral amygdala, and ventral hippocampus. Furthermore, co-stimulation of glutamatergic pathways induced non-linear Ca-signaling integration, revealing integrative properties of NAc astrocytes. All these results demonstrate the existence of specific neuron-astrocyte circuits in the NAc, providing an insight to the understanding of how the NAc integrates information.
星形胶质细胞是参与与脑功能相关的神经元生理学的不同方面的脑回路的关键元素。尽管人们正在努力了解星形胶质细胞生物学如何影响脑回路，但星形胶质细胞网络的异质性和可塑性仍未得到明确界定。在这里，我们使用 Ca 调节的光激活比率积分器结合对星形胶质细胞活性的结构和功能成像，对使用 Ca 调节的光激活比率积分器在小鼠中记录的星形胶质细胞活性进行了研究，并用特定的光刺激谷氨酸能通路来绘制伏隔核（NAc）中的功能性神经元-星形胶质细胞回路。我们显示了选择性光刺激来自前额叶皮层、基底外侧杏仁核和腹侧海马的主要输入引起的特定于通路的星形胶质细胞反应。此外，谷氨酸能通路的共刺激诱导了非线性 Ca 信号整合，揭示了 NAc 星形胶质细胞的整合特性。所有这些结果都表明 NAc 中存在特定的神经元-星形胶质细胞回路，为理解 NAc 如何整合信息提供了深入了解。
