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An astrocyte bridge from synapse to blood flow

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Neural activity locally increases cerebral blood flow to deliver oxygen to working neurons. A new paper shows that astrocytes can detect activity at glutamatergic synapses via calcium changes in astrocytic endfeet and directly couple it to blood flow in vitro and in vivo.

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Figure 1: Proposed mechanism for astrocyte-mediated coupling of synaptic activity to local vasodilation.

Ivelisse Robles

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Museum Avenue, Box 911, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 3US, UK

    Rheinallt Parri & Vincenzo Crunelli

  2. Rheinallt Parri & Vincenzo Crunelli

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  1. Rheinallt Parri
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  2. Vincenzo Crunelli
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Parri, R., Crunelli, V. An astrocyte bridge from synapse to blood flow. Nat Neurosci 6, 5–6 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0103-5

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