astrocyte
星形细胞,星形胶质细胞,星型细胞,星状细胞
Definitions
- 1
Cell Biology.
- : a star-shaped neuroglial cell of ectodermal origin.
Examples
Despite all the unanswered questions, the possibility that astrocytes play a role in sleep regulation is an exciting discovery that sets the stage for a whole new era of sleep research.
In both mouse and human brains, astrocytes send calcium particles to one another to communicate and provide necessary support for neuron activity.
That finding on its own wasn’t terribly exciting, since it might have meant that astrocytes simply mirror the behavior of the neurons they support.
That’s one explanation for why removing PTB in astrocytes converted them to fully functioning neurons specific to the region.
It may be that astrocytes are constantly suppressing their development into a neuron with the expression of PTB1.