Identification of region-specific astrocyte subtypes at single cell resolution
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 5 March 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Communications
- Vol. 11 (1), 1-15
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14198-8
Abstract
Astrocytes, a major cell type found throughout the central nervous system, have general roles in the modulation of synapse formation and synaptic transmission, blood–brain barrier formation, and regulation of blood flow, as well as metabolic support of other brain resident cells. Crucially, emerging evidence shows specific adaptations and astrocyte-encoded functions in regions, such as the spinal cord and cerebellum. To investigate the true extent of astrocyte molecular diversity across forebrain regions, we used single-cell RNA sequencing. Our analysis identifies five transcriptomically distinct astrocyte subtypes in adult mouse cortex and hippocampus. Validation of our data in situ reveals distinct spatial positioning of defined subtypes, reflecting the distribution of morphologically and physiologically distinct astrocyte populations. Our findings are evidence for specialized astrocyte subtypes between and within brain regions. The data are available through an online database (https://holt-sc.glialab.org/), providing a resource on which to base explorations of local astrocyte diversity and function in the brain.This publication has 63 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Emerging Nature of Astrocyte DiversityAnnual Review of Neuroscience, 2019
- Molecular Architecture of the Mouse Nervous SystemCell, 2018
- Molecular Diversity and Specializations among the Cells of the Adult Mouse BrainCell, 2018
- Layer-specific morphological and molecular differences in neocortical astrocytes and their dependence on neuronal layersNature Communications, 2018
- The Aging Astrocyte Transcriptome from Multiple Regions of the Mouse BrainCell Reports, 2018
- Neural Circuit-Specialized Astrocytes: Transcriptomic, Proteomic, Morphological, and Functional EvidenceNeuron, 2017
- Functional diversity of astrocytes in neural circuit regulationNature Reviews Neuroscience, 2016
- Diversity of astrocyte functions and phenotypes in neural circuitsNature Neuroscience, 2015
- The Mystery and Magic of Glia: A Perspective on Their Roles in Health and DiseaseNeuron, 2008
- A Transcriptome Database for Astrocytes, Neurons, and Oligodendrocytes: A New Resource for Understanding Brain Development and FunctionJournal of Neuroscience, 2008