Medical Sciences Commons^™

Response Of Astrocyte Subpopulations Following Spinal Cord Injury., R Vivian Allahyari, Nicolette M Heinsinger, Daniel Hwang, David A Jaffe, Javad Rasouli, Stephanie Shiers, Samantha J Thomas, Theodore J Price, Abdolmohamad Rostami, Angelo C Lepore

Farber Institute for Neuroscience Faculty Papers

There is growing appreciation for astrocyte heterogeneity both across and within central nervous system (CNS) regions, as well as between intact and diseased states. Recent work identified multiple astrocyte subpopulations in mature brain. Interestingly, one subpopulation (Population C) was shown to possess significantly enhanced synaptogenic properties in vitro, as compared with other astrocyte subpopulations of adult cortex and spinal cord. Following spinal cord injury (SCI), damaged neurons lose synaptic connections with neuronal partners, resulting in persistent functional loss. We determined whether SCI induces an enhanced synaptomodulatory astrocyte phenotype by shifting toward a greater proportion of Population C cells and/or increasing …