Brain metabolism dictates the polarity of astrocyte control over arterioles

Grant R. J. Gordon, Hyun B. Choi, Ravi L. Rungta, Graham C. R. Ellis-Davies and Brian A. MacVicar ()
Additional contact information
Grant R. J. Gordon: Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia
Hyun B. Choi: Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia
Ravi L. Rungta: Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia
Graham C. R. Ellis-Davies: Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102, USA
Brian A. MacVicar: Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia

Nature, 2008, vol. 456, issue 7223, 745-749

Abstract: Abstract Calcium signalling in astrocytes couples changes in neural activity to alterations in cerebral blood flow by eliciting vasoconstriction or vasodilation of arterioles. However, the mechanism for how these opposite astrocyte influences provide appropriate changes in vessel tone within an environment that has dynamic metabolic requirements remains unclear. Here we show that the ability of astrocytes to induce vasodilations over vasoconstrictions relies on the metabolic state of the rat brain tissue. When oxygen availability is lowered and astrocyte calcium concentration is elevated, astrocyte glycolysis and lactate release are maximized. External lactate attenuates transporter-mediated uptake from the extracellular space of prostaglandin E2, leading to accumulation and subsequent vasodilation. In conditions of low oxygen concentration extracellular adenosine also increases, which blocks astrocyte-mediated constriction, facilitating dilation. These data reveal the role of metabolic substrates in regulating brain blood flow and provide a mechanism for differential astrocyte control over cerebrovascular diameter during different states of brain activation.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07525 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:456:y:2008:i:7223:d:10.1038_nature07525

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature07525

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().