Types of astrocytes | Location | Morphology | Functions | Particularities |
---|---|---|---|---|
Protoplasmic astrocytes | Uniformly distributed within the grey matter [3] | Bushy appearance, with numerous short, branched, thick processes [50]. The cell body is ovoid or fusiform (see Figure 5) | • Form the blood–brain barrier | Their processes exhibit endfeet enveloping the synapses and the blood vessels [51]. The processes express |
• Regulate the blood flow | ||||
• Neuronal metabolism | • Receptors for neurotransmitters, cytokines, growth factors | |||
• Implicated in the synapse function | • Transporters | |||
• Fluid, ion, pH and transmitter homeostasis [45] | • Ion channels [7]. In rodents, there is minimal overlapping between the processes of the neighbouring astrocytes [43, 44, 52–54]. In humans, the superposition of the domains occupied by the astrocytes processes is augmented [3] | |||
Fibrous astrocytes | Within the white matter, oriented longitudinally, along the nervous fibers bundles [1] | Star-shaped cells. Posses long, thin and straight processes [45] (see Figure 6) | Their endfeet processes envelop the nodes of Ranvier and the blood vessels [45] | |
Interlaminar astrocytes | In the molecular 1st layer of the cerebral cortex, next to the pial surface | Spherical cell bodies and processes | Unknown Support the calcium wave propagation in humans [3] | Are found only in humans and primates. Their processes are included in the pial glial membrane, creating a thick network of GFAP fibers [46–49] |
Varicose projection astrocytes | In the 5th and the 6th layers of the cerebral cortex | Exhibit 1 to 5 long processes (up to 1 mm in length), characterized by evenly (10 μm) spaced varicosities [3, 46] | Unknown | Were identified only in humans and chimpanzees. They are GFAP+ cells [3, 46] |
Bergmann glia (epithelial glial cells) | In the Purkinje-cell and the granular layers of the cerebellar cortex | Posses long processes extending towards the molecular layer of the cerebellar cortex, in a fan-like arrangement, exhibiting pial vascular endfeet [23] | Implicated in synapse function: capable to interfere with synaptic transmission by communicating with neurons via the extracellular space, by modulating ion concentrations or transmitter levels in the synaptic cleft [23] | Display receptors with distinct biophysical and pharmacological features allowing them to sense the activity of synapses [23] |
Fananas cells | In the molecular layer of the cerebellar cortex | Posses several short side processes with a characteristic feather-like arrangement [23] | ||
Müller cells | In the 6th layer of the visual retina | Supportive cells: they form the inner and the outer limiting membranes | The limiting membranes consist of junctional complexes between the cellular processes of the Müller cells | |
The outer membrane separates the external segment of the photoreceptor cells from the cell bodies and the outer membrane separates the retina from the vitrous body [23] | They have an intense metabolic activity and contain microfilaments and glycogen within their cytoplasm [23] | |||
Pituicytes | In the neurohypophysis | Irregular in shape with many cytoplasmic processes extending in the proximity of the capillaries and surrounding the Herring bodies [24] | Their cytoplasm contains lipid droplets and pigment granules. | |
They are immunoreactive for GFAP, vimentin and S100 protein [24] | ||||
Inerstitial epiphysial cells | In the epiphysis | Exhibit cytoplasmic processes | Contain numerous filaments within their processes [23] |