Transcriptomic analyses of astrocyte heterogeneity within white matter tracts

Astrocytes are broadly categorized as protoplasmic or fibrous, with the former localized to synaptically dense gray matter regions and the latter associated with axons in the white matter. Much of what we know about astrocyte form and function is derived from the study of protoplasmic astrocytes, whereas fibrous astrocytes remain relatively unexplored. We investigated the transcriptome of uninjured fibrous astrocytes in the mouse from three regions: unmyelinated optic nerve head (ONH), myelinated optic nerve proper (ONP), and corpus callosum (CC). Overall design: Comparative transcriptomic analyses of white matter astroctyes isolated from the ONH, ONP and CC at steady-state (untreated mice)