Astrocytes and disease: a neurodevelopmental perspective
- Anna V. Molofsky2,4,
- Robert Krenick5,
- Erik Ullian5,
- Hui-hsin Tsai1,2,3,
- Benjamin Deneen6,
- William D. Richardson7,8,
- Ben A. Barres9 and
- David H. Rowitch1,2,3,10
- 1Department of Pediatrics,
- 2Department of Neurosurgery, Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research,
- 3Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, 94143, USA;
- 4Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, San Francisco, California 94143, USA;
- 5Department of Ophthalmology, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, 94143, USA;
- 6Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA;
- 7Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research,
- 8Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom;
- 9Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California 94305, USA
Abstract
Astrocytes are no longer seen as a homogenous population of cells. In fact, recent studies indicate that astrocytes are morphologically and functionally diverse and play critical roles in neurodevelopmental diseases such as Rett syndrome and fragile X mental retardation. This review summarizes recent advances in astrocyte development, including the role of neural tube patterning in specification and developmental functions of astrocytes during synaptogenesis. We propose here that a precise understanding of astrocyte development is critical to defining heterogeneity and could lead advances in understanding and treating a variety of neuropsychiatric diseases.
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↵10 Corresponding author.
E-mail rowitchd{at}peds.ucsf.edu.
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Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.188326.112.
- Copyright © 2012 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press