Tibor Harkany, Evgenii Tretiakov, Luis Varela, Jasna Jarc, Patrick Rebernik, Sylvia Newbold, Erik Keimpema, Alexei Verkhratsky, Tamas Horvath, Roman Romanov
Astrocytes safeguard the homeostasis of the central nervous system 1,2 . Despite their prominent morphological plasticity under conditions that challenge the brain's adaptive capacity 3-5 , the classification of astrocytes, and relating their molecular make-up to spatially devolved neuronal operations that specify behavior or metabolism, remained mostly futile 6,7 . Although it seems unexpected in the era of single-cell biology, the lack of a major advance in stratifying astrocytes under physiological conditions rests on the incompatibility of 'neurocentric' algorithms that rely on stable developmental endpoints, lifelong transcriptional, neurotransmitter, and neuropeptide signatures for classification 6-8 with the dynamic functional states, anatomic allocation, and allostatic plasticity of astrocytes 1 ...
February 9, 2024: Research Square