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). Comparative transcriptomic analyses of white matter astroctyes isolated from the ONH, ONP and CC at steady-state (untreated mice)

星形胶质细胞（Astrocytes）大致可分为原浆型与纤维型两个亚类：前者定位于突触富集的灰质区域，后者则与白质中的轴突相关联。目前学界对星形胶质细胞形态与功能的认知大多源于原浆型星形胶质细胞的研究，而纤维型星形胶质细胞的相关探索仍相对不足。本研究针对小鼠体内三个区域的未损伤纤维型星形胶质细胞的转录组（transcriptome）展开分析，这三个区域分别为：无髓鞘视神经乳头（unmyelinated optic nerve head, ONH）、有髓鞘视神经主干（myelinated optic nerve proper, ONP）以及胼胝体（corpus callosum, CC）。研究团队对稳态条件下（未处理小鼠）分离自ONH、ONP与CC的白质星形胶质细胞开展了比较转录组学分析。