Left: Astrocyte ensemble labeling utilizing AstroLight. Utilizing this device, the authors obtained a spatial map of the astrocyte ensemble within the nucleus accumbens concerned in a cue-motivated behavioral job. Proper: Astrocyte ensemble stimulation. Reactivation of the AstroLight-tagged astrocytes produced a change within the desire of mice for one in all two potential reward websites. Credit score: Serra et al.
Most neuroscience analysis carried out updated has primarily targeted on neurons, probably the most famend sort of cell within the human mind. Because of this, the distinctive features of different mind cell varieties are much less understood and have typically been fully ignored.
Researchers at Instituto Cajal (CSIC), the Autonomous College of Madrid and Institute de Salud Carlos III just lately carried out a research aimed toward higher understanding the contributions of astrocytes, a category of star-shaped glial cells discovered within the mind and spinal twine, to key psychological features. Their findings, revealed in Nature Neuroscience, unveiled the existence of astrocytic ensembles, specialised astrocyte subsets that seem like lively throughout reward-driven behaviors.
“It is known that astrocytes are a heterogeneous cell type in their molecular and gene expression signatures, morphology and origin,” Marta Navarrete, senior creator of the paper, informed Medical Xpress.
“However, unlike neurons, so far, nothing was known about the functional diversity of astrocytes. In this work, we wanted to study if and how astrocytes can be distinguished based on the roles that they play within the different circuits that they are part of.”
To carefully look at the exercise and contributions of astrocytes, the researchers used a brand new experimental device that they developed, dubbed AstroLight. This promising device allowed them to map the group of this less-studied class of cells whereas additionally manipulating their exercise utilizing mild.
Three-dimensional reconstruction of an ensemble astrocyte tagged with AstroLight, in yellow, and a non-ensemble astrocyte, in crimson. Credit score: Serra et al.
“We adapted a tool originally designed for neurons, which is not ideal for them since their activity primarily depends on action potentials rather than calcium ion fluctuations,” defined Navarrete. “However, because astrocytic activity is largely driven by calcium dynamics, this tool is particularly well-suited for studying astrocytes.”
The researchers used the AstroLight device to label and manipulate astrocytes within the brains of mice as they have been finishing a behavioral job. Their findings gathered new helpful insights into the specialised function of this distinctive class of glial cells in motivation and cue-driven behaviors.
“Using the new tool we adapted, we translated astrocytic calcium signals into light-dependent gene expression, enabling us to identify and manipulate an active astrocytic ensemble in the posterior-ventral region of the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) in mice,” stated Navarrete.
“Our findings demonstrate that learning cue-reward associations involves increased astrocytic activity in the NAc and that this activity is not uniform but rather confined to a specific, sparsely distributed subset of astrocytes—an ‘astrocytic ensemble.’ We show that direct optogenetic activation of this ensemble is sufficient to drive reward-seeking behavior, whereas activating the entire astrocyte population is not.”
The brand new findings gathered by Navarrete and her colleagues might have necessary implications for the research of astrocytes and their function in neural circuits, as they seem to contradict long-standing assumptions relating to the group of those cells. Though astrocytes have been historically considered as a homogeneous cell inhabitants, the researchers confirmed that they may, the truth is, function in specialised teams, thus fine-tuning the habits of animals and people equally to neurons.
“Importantly, our findings have potential implications for translational medicine, as targeting astrocytic ensembles could lead to more precise and personalized therapeutic approaches for neuropsychiatric disorders,” added Navarrete.
“The fact that we could alter mouse behavior by selectively manipulating an astrocyte ensemble poses an intriguing question: are astrocytes a substrate for memory? We plan to further investigate the roles of astrocyte ensembles in learning and memory using AstroLight and other cutting-edge tools.”
Extra info:
Irene Serra et al, Astrocyte ensembles manipulated with AstroLight tune cue-motivated habits, Nature Neuroscience (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-025-01870-0.
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The ignored astrocyte: Star-shaped mind cells might kind specialised networks for reward studying (2025, February 14)
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