生化学と生理学: オープンアクセス

抽象的な

Glia, Next Research Brain Frontier

Soraya L Valles

There are many different cells inside our brain, such as astrocytes, neurons, ependimiary cells, microglia and oligodendroglia. The role of neurons has been studied by decades because of its important interventions in cell communication in the nervous system. However other brain cells, glial cells, have been poorly studied compared to neurons. Astrocytes are more abundant than neurons in brain and in fact, they are more and more glial cells when we advanced in the phylogeny compared to neuron number. Einstein’s brain has three times more astrocytes than normal brain. So many scientists are thinking about the important role of astrocytes in memory, inflammation, oxidative stress, nutrition, cleaner brain cells, etc. Which roles of astrocytes are inside our brain and they have important works in neurogeneration, neurodegeneration and illness?