Review abstract
Focus on Glia and Disease
- Focus issue:
- November 2007 Volume 10, No 11
Nature Neuroscience 10, 1369 - 1376 (2007)
Published online: 26 October 2007 | doi:10.1038/nn2003
Glial regulation of the cerebral microvasculature
Costantino Iadecola1 & Maiken Nedergaard2
Abstract
The brain is a heterogeneous organ with regionally varied and constantly changing energetic needs. Blood vessels in the brain are equipped with control mechanisms that match oxygen and glucose delivery through blood flow with the local metabolic demands that are imposed by neural activity. However, the cellular bases of this mechanism have remained elusive. A major advance has been the demonstration that astrocytes, cells with extensive contacts with both synapses and cerebral blood vessels, participate in the increases in flow evoked by synaptic activity. Their organization in nonoverlapping spatial domains indicates that they are uniquely positioned to shape the spatial distribution of the vascular responses that are evoked by neural activity. Astrocytic calcium is an important determinant of microvascular function and may regulate flow independently of synaptic activity. The involvement of astrocytes in neurovascular coupling has broad implications for the interpretation of functional imaging signals and for the understanding of brain diseases that are associated with neurovascular dysfunction.
- Division of Neurobiology, Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Medical College, 411 East 69th St., New York, New York 10021, USA.
- Center for Aging and Developmental Biology, Department of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, 601 Elmwood Ave., Rochester, New York 14642, USA.
Correspondence to: Costantino Iadecola1 e-mail: coi2001@med.cornell.edu
Correspondence to: Maiken Nedergaard2 e-mail: nedergaard@urmc.rochester.edu
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