Sep 26, 2024 · Less well understood is what role inflammation and glial changes play. Now, by analyzing single-nuclei RNA-Seq data from more than 400 postmortem brains, scientists have homed in on specific glial subtypes associated with distinct stages of AD pathology, estimating the effects subtypes have on plaques, tangles, and cognition.

Jan 24, 2025 · Interestingly, they discovered that this axis is undetectable in 2D or even 3D neuron monoculture models, highlighting the need for more sophisticated models replicating physiological neural-glial networks. Notably, they detected and validated that a voltage-gated calcium channel beta subunit plays a role in APOE4 astrocyte-iAssembloids.

Jun 1, 2024 · In APP/PS1 controls (left), astrocytes (green) and microglia (brown) form a wide glial net around plaques. Without Plexin-B1 to enforce cell spacing (right), glia crowd together and around plaques, compacting them more. [Courtesy of Huang et al., Nature Neuroscience, 2024.] This potency manifested in the plaque load.

Feb 27, 2024 · The daily transfer of lipids from neurons to glia required neuronal lazarillo (NLaz), a fly apolipoprotein similar to human apolipoprotein E (APOE): knocking down NLaz reduced glial lipid droplet accumulation. Interestingly, reducing the expression of glial lazarillo (GLaz) resulted in more lipid droplets rather than fewer, which was unexpected.

Feb 27, 2024 · The daily transfer of lipids from neurons to glia required neuronal lazarillo (NLaz), a fly apolipoprotein similar to human apolipoprotein E (APOE): knocking down NLaz reduced glial lipid droplet accumulation. Interestingly, reducing the expression of glial lazarillo (GLaz) resulted in more lipid droplets rather than fewer, which was unexpected.

Oct 22, 2024 · When they cranked up tau expression in glia throughout the fly brain, glial lipid droplets plummeted by more than 90 percent, and peroxidated lipids accumulated. Similarly, in co-cultures of rat primary cells grown in a salt solution that provokes mild oxidative stress, overexpressing tau in astrocytes slashed production of lipid droplets.

Jun 7, 2024 · The authors provide evidence that lipid droplets that accumulate in aged brains are sourced by lipids from the senescent glia themselves (cell autonomous), while others suggest that the source of glial lipid droplets in young brains is neurons (non-cell autonomous) (Moulton et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2017). Thus, it will be ...

Apr 12, 2018 · Glial Impostor? DCX+ (green) cells co-expressing the oligodendrocyte marker Olig2 (red). [Courtesy of Sorrells et al., Nature, 2018.] The researchers concluded that neurogenesis is robust only in the earliest stages of development, and that DCX+ cells in late childhood and adult samples were actually glia.

Jul 22, 2022 · In particular, both papers cautioned against the lure of easy dichotomies, of categorizing glial cells as resting versus activated, or protective versus toxic. The more scientists learn, the more apparent it becomes that these labels are oversimplifications of complex and dynamic states, which can be beneficial or detrimental in different contexts.

Jul 7, 2002 · A paper in tomorrow's Science presents a new, beneficial function for cholesterol in the brain that may help explain some previous data. Scientists led by Frank Pfrieger the Max-Planck/CNRS group in Strasbourg, France, report that neurons need cholesterol secreted by glial cells to form and maintain functional synapses.