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Principles of Astrogliopathology

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Astrocytes in Psychiatric Disorders

Part of the book series: Advances in Neurobiology ((NEUROBIOL,volume 26))

Abstract

The role of astrocytes in the nervous system pathology was early on embraced by neuroscientists at end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, only to be pushed aside by neurone-centric dogmas during most of the twentieth century. However, the last decade of the twentieth century and the twenty-first century have brought the astroglial “renaissance”, which has put astroglial cells as key players in pathophysiology of most if not all disorders of the nervous system and has regarded astroglia as a fertile ground for therapeutic intervention.

Astrocytic contribution to neuropathology can be primary, whereby cell-autonomous changes, such as mutations in gene encoding for glial fibrillary acidic protein, can drive the pathologic progression, in this example, Alexander disease. They can also be secondary, when astrocytes respond to a variety of insults to the nervous tissue. Regardless of their origin, being cell-autonomous or not, changes in astroglia that occur in pathology, that is, astrogliopathology, can be contemporary and arbitrary classified into four forms: (i) reactive astrogliosis, (ii) astrocytic atrophy with loss of function, (iii) pathological remodelling of astrocytes and (iv) astrodegeneration morphologically manifested as clasmatodendrosis. Inevitably, as with any other classification, this classification of astrogliopathology awaits its revision that shall be rooted in new discoveries and concepts.

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Acknowledgements

BL’s work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 8187185), LiaoNing Revitalization Talents Program (grant number XLYC1807137), Scientific Research Foundation for Returned Scholars of Education Ministry of China (grant number 20151098), LiaoNing Thousand Talents Program (grant number 202078) and “ChunHui” Program of Education Ministry of China (grant number 2020703). CS’s work is supported by a grant from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (2015KP7T2Y_002) and a grant from Sapienza University of Rome (RM11916B7A8D0225). VP’s work is supported by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (R01GM123971). VP is an Honorary Professor at University of Rijeka, Croatia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Alexei Verkhratsky

  2. Achucarro Center for Neuroscience, IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain

    Alexei Verkhratsky

  3. Practical Teaching Center, School of Forensic Medicine, China Medical University, Shenyang, China

    Baoman Li

  4. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “Vittorio Erspamer”, SAPIENZA University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Caterina Scuderi

  5. Department of Neurobiology, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Vladimir Parpura

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  1. Alexei Verkhratsky
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  2. Baoman Li
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  3. Caterina Scuderi
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  4. Vladimir Parpura
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Correspondence to Alexei Verkhratsky .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Analytical Toxicology, School of Forensic Medicine, China Medical University, Shenyang, China

    Baoman Li

  2. Department of Neurobiology, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Vladimir Parpura

  3. Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Alexei Verkhratsky

  4. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “Vittorio Erspamer”, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Caterina Scuderi

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Verkhratsky, A., Li, B., Scuderi, C., Parpura, V. (2021). Principles of Astrogliopathology. In: Li, B., Parpura, V., Verkhratsky, A., Scuderi, C. (eds) Astrocytes in Psychiatric Disorders. Advances in Neurobiology, vol 26. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77375-5_3

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