Spatial organization of astrocytes in ferret visual cortex

• Published in: Journal of comparative neurology (1911) 2016-12, Vol.524 (17), p.3561-3576
• Main Authors: López-Hidalgo, Mónica, Hoover, Walter B., Schummers, James
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: AB_1587626; AB_2298772; AB_306716; AB_397473; Aging - pathology; Animals; astrocyte territories; Astrocytes - cytology; Cell Count; Cell Size; Electroporation; Ferrets - anatomy & histology; Ferrets - growth & development; Immunohistochemistry; Male; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Microscopy, Confocal; Models, Neurological; Mustela putorius furo; nif-0000-00314; overlap; tiling; two-photon; Visual Cortex - cytology; Visual Cortex - growth & development
• ISSN: 0021-9967; 1096-9861
• DOI: 10.1002/cne.24015

ABSTRACT Astrocytes form an intricate partnership with neural circuits to influence numerous cellular and synaptic processes. One prominent organizational feature of astrocytes is the “tiling” of the brain with non‐overlapping territories. There are some documented species and brain region–specific astrocyte specializations, but the extent of astrocyte diversity and circuit specificity are still unknown. We quantitatively defined the rules that govern the spatial arrangement of astrocyte somata and territory overlap in ferret visual cortex using a combination of in vivo two‐photon imaging, morphological reconstruction, immunostaining, and model simulations. We found that ferret astrocytes share, on average, half of their territory with other astrocytes. However, a specific class of astrocytes, abundant in thalamo‐recipient cortical layers (“kissing” astrocytes), overlap markedly less. Together, these results demonstrate novel features of astrocyte organization indicating that different classes of astrocytes are arranged in a circuit‐specific manner and that tiling does not apply universally across brain regions and species. J. Comp. Neurol. 524:3561–3576, 2016. © 2016 The Authors The Journal of Comparative Neurology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. We studied the spatial organization and morphology of astrocytes in ferret visual cortex using a combination of in vivo electroporation, 3D reconstruction, and histological approaches. We found that astrocytes share half of their territory with other astrocytes, except for a subtype of astrocytes, “kissing astrocytes,” which establish exclusive domains.