Chiappini Vanessa, Castillo Maria Fernanda Veloz, Biancardi Francesco, Di Cunto Ferdinando, Magistretti Pierre J, Vercelli Alessandro, Agus Marco, Calì Corrado
Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi, Orbassano, Italy.
J Physiol. 2025 Mar 3. doi: 10.1113/JP287455.
The morphological features of astrocytes are crucial for brain homeostasis, synaptic activity and structural support, yet remain poorly quantified. As a result of the nanometre-sized cross-section of neuropil astrocytic processes, electron microscopy (EM) is the only technique availabe to date capable of revealing their finest morphologies. Volume EM (vEM) techniques, such as serial block-face or focused ion beam scanning EM, enable high-resolution imaging of large fields and allow more extensive 3-D model analyses, revealing new astrocytic morphological features. This scoping review aims to summarize the state of the art of astrocyte ultrastructural analysis. This review included 45 of 439 non-duplicated articles from a Pubmed search, categorizing studies by research focus, animal models, brain region, vEM techniques and segmentation methods. By answering classical questions such as volume, surface area, branching complexity and synaptic ensheathment reported in the literature, this work is a valuable resource for scientists working on structural biology or computational neuroscience.
星形胶质细胞的形态特征对于脑内环境稳定、突触活动和结构支持至关重要，但目前仍缺乏精确的量化。由于神经毡星形胶质细胞突起的横截面尺寸为纳米级，电子显微镜（EM）是迄今为止唯一能够揭示其最细微形态的技术。体积电子显微镜（vEM）技术，如连续块面或聚焦离子束扫描电子显微镜，能够对大视野进行高分辨率成像，并允许进行更广泛的三维模型分析，从而揭示星形胶质细胞新的形态特征。本综述旨在总结星形胶质细胞超微结构分析的现状。本综述纳入了从PubMed搜索中筛选出的439篇非重复文章中的45篇，根据研究重点、动物模型、脑区、vEM技术和分割方法对研究进行分类。通过回答文献中报道的诸如体积、表面积、分支复杂性和突触包裹等经典问题，这项工作对于从事结构生物学或计算神经科学的科学家来说是一份宝贵的资源。
