Water entry into astrocytes during brain edema formation
- 19 March 2008
- Vol. 56 (8), 895-902
- https://doi.org/10.1002/glia.20664
Abstract
The process of brain edema formation has been studied extensively at the macroscopic level. In contrast, little is known about water fluxes and volume changes at the cellular level in the initial phase of brain edema. Insight in these “microscopic” events could pave the way for more efficient prevention and therapy. Here, we report measurements of brain cell volume responses recorded in vivo in a model of systemic hyponatremia. Transgenic mice expressing fluorescent proteins in astrocytes were subjected to hypo-osmotic stress and two photon laser scanning microscopy. Volume measurements of glial cells in the cerebellum and the visual cortex indicate that individual astrocytes undergo a position-dependent increase in cell volume by a factor of two or more during edema formation. Our data are the first to show that volume changes can be monitored at the cellular level in vivo and demonstrate that astrocytes are sites of water entry in the initial phase of brain edema formation. The uptake of water in astrocytes is likely to reflect the strong expression of aquaporin-4 in these cells.Keywords
This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit:
- Aquaporin-4 and brain edemaPediatric Nephrology, 2007
- Three distinct roles of aquaporin-4 in brain function revealed by knockout miceBiochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes, 2006
- Treatment of Cerebral EdemaThe Neurologist, 2006
- A multiphoton laser scanning microscope setup for transcranial in vivo brain imaging on miceReview of Scientific Instruments, 2005
- Alpha syntrophin deletion removes the perivascular but not the endothelial pool of aquaporin‐4 at the blood‐brain barrier and delays the development of brain edema in an experimental model of acute hyponatremiaThe FASEB Journal, 2004
- The molecular basis of water transport in the brainNature Reviews Neuroscience, 2003
- Astrocyte and Oligodendrocyte Connexins of the Glial Syncytium in Relation to Astrocyte Anatomical Domains and Spatial BufferingCell Communication & Adhesion, 2003
- Imaging Neuronal Subsets in Transgenic Mice Expressing Multiple Spectral Variants of GFPNeuron, 2000
- Photon Upmanship: Why Multiphoton Imaging Is More than a GimmickNeuron, 1997
- Two-Photon Laser Scanning Fluorescence MicroscopyScience, 1990