Morphological and physiological features of human cerebral cortical astrocytes in regenerative medicine: a narrative review

Tyurikova, Olga

Department of Clinical & Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK

*Correspondence to: Olga Tyurikova, PhD, olga.tyurikova.15@ucl.ac.uk.

This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Regenerative Medicine Reports 1(1):p 52-58, September 2024. | DOI: 10.4103/REGENMED.REGENMED-D-24-00003

Abstract

Astrocytes are essential for various functions in the brain, including regulating synaptic transmission, maintaining ion homeostasis, and supporting neuronal network activity. Despite over a century of recognition that human astrocytes differ morphologically from those of other mammals, detailed functional studies have been limited due to challenges in obtaining live human brain tissue. This narrative review revisits recent findings on the morphological and physiological properties of human astrocytes, particularly those focusing on cortical astrocytes. I summarize the main anatomical and functional features of the different types of human astrocytes and briefly compare human astrocytes with what is known about astrocytes in mice and/or primates. I greatly summarize the physiological properties of human astrocytes, with emphasis on their intrinsic properties, potassium ion uptake and syncytium connectivity, emphasizing recent advances that have enhanced our understanding of astrocytic functionality in the human brain and their possible role in regenerative medicine.

人类大脑皮质星形胶质细胞的形态学及功能特征在再生医学中的作用：叙述性综述

摘要

星形胶质细胞对大脑的各种功能至关重要，包括调节突触传递、维持离子平衡和支持神经元网络活动。尽管一个多世纪以来人们认识到人类星形胶质细胞在形态上与其他哺乳动物的星形胶质细胞不同，但由于难以获得活体人类脑组织，详细的功能研究一直受到限制。这篇叙述性综述重温了有关人类星形胶质细胞形态和生理特性的最新发现，尤其侧重于大脑皮质星形胶质细胞。这篇综述总结了人类星形胶质细胞的主要解剖学特征和功能特征。比较了人类星形胶质细胞与已知的小鼠和/或灵长类动物的星形胶质细胞。还对人类星形胶质细胞的生理特性进行了大量总结，重点介绍了其内在特性、K+摄取和突触连接。强调了最近的研究进展增进了对人脑中星形胶质细胞功能及其在再生医学的可能作用的了解。