New research changes our understanding of the role of support cells known as astrocytes in brain activity. (Image credit: JUAN GAERTNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
Scientists have identified a new type of cell that could help treat brain damage — at least in studies on mice.
Researchers have discovered a unique type of astrocyte, a star-shaped cell that supports communication between neurons and keeps them healthy by stabilizing the brain's protective barrier and regulating the balance of ions and signaling molecules in neurons.
In the brain, astrocytes can be found in both the gray matter, which contains the bulk of neurons that process information, and in the white matter, the isolated fibers that extend from some neurons. Scientists have long studied the role of astrocytes in the gray matter, but much less is known about their counterparts in the white matter.
In a new study published Monday (Feb. 24) in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists determined the functions of white matter astrocytes in brain tissue samples from mice by analyzing the activity of genes that these cells activated, or “switched on.”
The researchers identified two different types of white matter astrocytes. The first type acted as a “housekeeper,” providing physical support to nerve fibers and facilitating neuronal communication. The second type had a previously undiscovered ability to multiply, creating new astrocytes.
“This is a really significant discovery because nothing like this has been seen before,” study co-author Judith Fischer-Sternyak, deputy director of the Institute for Stem Cell Research at Helmholtz University in Munich, Germany, told Live Science.
The researchers also found that some of these special proliferative astrocytes were able to move from the white matter to the gray matter of the mouse brain, a finding that suggests that these cells may serve as a reserve for new astrocytes.
High-resolution microscopic image of proliferative astrocytes (shown in green and white) in a white matter region of the mouse brain.
If similar astrocytes are found in the human brain, the study could potentially lead to the development of new treatments to repair the brain after injury or damage, such as that caused by neurodegenerative diseases including multiple sclerosis, the authors suggested. For example, the scientists
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