Berninger and others have previously shown that Sox2, Ascl1, and other transcription factors — proteins that bind to specific DNA sequences to control the activity of genes — can induce the nonneuronal «support cells» known
as glia to turn into neurons.
Each cell in the image (both neurons and the support cells known
as glia) was color - coded by hand, a process that took 150 hours.
Mysterious cells in your brain, known
as glia, outnumber your neurons 10 to 1, and nobody knows what they do.
Researchers have only recently begun to catalog the functions of the remaining cells, known
as glia.
Not exact matches
The San Diego, California — based biotech company MediciNova recently completed a phase II trial of a
glia - inhibiting drug called ibudilast, already approved
as an asthma treatment in Japan, to relieve pain and treat withdrawal in opioid abusers.
A third class of
glia, known
as Schwann cells and oligodendrocytes, form insulating sleeves around neurons to keep their electric signals from diffusing.
Even though the brain contains about a trillion
glia — 10 times
as many
as there are neurons — the assumption was that those cells were nothing more than a passive support system.
When the researchers injected human umbilical stem cells behind the retinas of these rats, the Müller
glia remained healthy,
as did the neural synapses.
As the number of neural synapses declined, the Müller
glia also became sickly, pulling their branches away from neurons and dividing haphazardly.
Liu and her colleagues discovered that the storage of lipid droplets in
glia protects neurons from damage
as long
as the free radicals do not destroy the lipid droplets.
Using a technology called VAST, which can automatically label individual neurons,
glia, and blood vessels different colors,
as well
as smaller structures such
as dendrites and mitochondria, the researchers analyzed the contents of three cylindrical chunks of brain tissue, each no bigger than grains of salt.
Sometimes referred to
as the stem cells of the zebrafish eye, Müller
glia are the cells from which all other types of retinal cells are regenerated in the fish.
The brain consists of highly specialized cells such
as neuron,
glia, and astrocytes.
Anna Huttenlocher, University of Wisconsin, USA Neutrophils in the Tumor Microenvironment Neutrophils, Wounds, and Cancer Progression Stefan Kaufmann, Max Planck Institute, Germany Pathology and immune reactivity: understanding multidimensionality in pulmonary tuberculosis Constitutive BAK activation
as a determinant of drug sensitivity in malignant lymphohematopoietic cells Kathryn Moore, New York University, USA MicroRNA -33-dependent regulation of macrophage metabolism directs immune cell polarization in atherosclerosis Lalita Ramakrishnan, University of Cambridge, UK Myeloid Growth Factors Promote Resistance to Mycobacterial Infection by Curtailing Granuloma Necrosis through Macrophage Replenishment Beth Stevens, Harvard University, USA Microglia: Dynamic Mediators of Synapse Development and Plasticity Do
glia drive synaptic and cognitive impairment in disease?
[19] In the current study, [15] PDGF -
AS mice exhibited an increased number and intensity of areas staining for reactive microglia (using Iba1) and astroglia (using GFAP), but vaccination with AFF 1 prevented nearly all of this disease - associated excess, with treated animals exhibiting only the burden of reactive
glia present in similar - aged WT mice.
Early in his career, he discovered that previously enigmatic support cells, known
as radial
glia, serve
as guides for the migration of cortical neurons in the developing brain, and showed how this process is critical for the organization of the multi-layered structure of the cerebral cortex.
He still was not a neural engineer, but he was getting closer, because
as it turns out, there is another really important thing to know about
glia — they protect the brain from foreign intruders.
There are many more glial cells in the brain than neurons, and astrocytes are the most abundant of the
glia, so if you take a sample of brain tissue, you're fairly sure to get some astrocytes
as part of the bargain.
Finally, the CFC has discovered a unique population of
glia in proximity to retinal ganglion cell axons
as they exit the retina.
The ultrastructural localization of monocarboxyltate transporters (Cereb Cortex 2005, Neuroscience 2007a)
as well
as identification of glutamate transporters in
glia (Glia 2008) and in nerve endings (Neuroscience 2008) provides new approaches to understanding brain funct
glia (
Glia 2008) and in nerve endings (Neuroscience 2008) provides new approaches to understanding brain funct
Glia 2008) and in nerve endings (Neuroscience 2008) provides new approaches to understanding brain function.