Aberrant Astrocytes as a Cause of Neurodegenerative Disease

Astrocytes are an important class of support cell in the brain, and one of the most common cell types in brain tissue. They carry out a wide range of tasks, most of which are absolutely essential to the functions performed by neurons. A few years ago, researchers suggested that senescent astrocytes may be responsible for a sizable portion of the progression of neurodegenerative conditions, a proposal expanded and further investigated since then, with a great deal more evidence gathered. Astrocyte behavior in the brain appears to change for the worse with age in a number of ways, not all of which may be connected to cellular senescence, and some of which might be preventable in the near term. The publicity materials here outline some of the most recent findings on this topic, in which the researchers propose that transformed astrocytes are producing some form of signal that results in the death of nearby neurons, and show that these astrocytes are present in neurodegenerative conditions where such cell death occurs:

While most of us haven't heard of astrocytes, these cells are four times as plentiful in the human brain as nerve cells. Now, a team has found that astrocytes, which perform many indispensable functions in the brain, can take on a villainous character, destroying nerve cells and likely driving many neurodegenerative diseases. "We've learned astrocytes aren't always the good guys. An aberrant version of them turns up in suspicious abundance in all the wrong...

Source: Fight Aging! - January 19, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs