Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-HEART AND CIRCULATORY PHYSIOLOGY
Volume 294, Issue 2, Pages H622-H632Publisher
AMER PHYSIOLOGICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00530.2007
Keywords
bicuculline; connexin; gap junction; glia limitans; L-alpha-aminoadipic acid; sciatic nerve stimulation
Funding
- NIDDK NIH HHS [DK-65629] Funding Source: Medline
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Astrocytes play an important role in the coupling between neuronal activity and brain blood flow via their capacity to sense neuronal activity and transmit that information to parenchymal arterioles. Here we show another role for astrocytes in neurovascular coupling: the ability to act as a signaling conduit for the vitally important process of upstream vasodilation (represented by pial arterioles) during both excessive (seizure) and physiological (sciatic nerve stimulation) increases in cerebral cortical neuronal activity. The predominance of an astrocytic rather than a vascular route was indicated by data showing that pial arteriolar-dilating responses to neuronal activation were completely blocked following selective disruption of the superficial glia limitans, whereas interference with interendothelial signaling was without effect. Results also revealed contributions from connexin 43, implying a role for gap junctions and/or hemichannels in the signaling process and that signaling from the glia limitans to pial arterioles may involve a diffusible mediator.
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