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Astrocytes are known to facilitate changes in blood flow [7] [8] and have long been thought to play a role in waste removal in the brain. [9] Astrocytes express water channels called aquaporins. [10] Until 2000, no physiological function had been identified that explained their presence in the mammalian CNS.
The switch of the nervous system: Based on the evidence listed below, it has been recently conjectured in, [37] that macro glia (and astrocytes in particular) act both as a lossy neurotransmitter capacitor and as the logical switch of the nervous system. I.e., macroglia either block or enable the propagation of the stimulus along the nervous ...
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a clear, colorless body fluid found within the tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord of all vertebrates. CSF is produced by specialized ependymal cells in the choroid plexus of the ventricles of the brain, and absorbed in the arachnoid granulations. In humans, there is about 125 mL of CSF at any one time ...
Aquaporin-4's overall function is to provide fast water transportation as well as maintain homeostatic balance within the central nervous system. This channel can transport water up to speeds of 3E9 molecules per second. [7] It is the primary water channel protein that reconciles the homeostasis of water in the CNS. [6]
The choroid plexus regulates the production and composition of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), that provides the protective buoyancy for the brain. [2] [10] CSF acts as a medium for the glymphatic filtration system that facilitates the removal of metabolic waste from the brain, and the exchange of biomolecules and xenobiotics into and out of the brain.
Cerebral circulation is the movement of blood through a network of cerebral arteries and veins supplying the brain.The rate of cerebral blood flow in an adult human is typically 750 milliliters per minute, or about 15% of cardiac output.
The astrocytes of the glia limitans are responsible for separating the brain into two primary compartments. The first compartment is the immune-privileged brain and spinal cord parenchyma. This compartment contains multiple immunosuppressive cell surface proteins such as CD200 and CD95L and it allows for the release of anti-inflammatory factors.
Since bergmann glia appear to persist in the cerebellum, and perform many of the roles characteristic of astrocytes, they have also been called "specialized astrocytes." [9] Bergmann glia have multiple radial processes that extend across the molecular layer of the cerebellar cortex and terminate at the pial surface as a bulbous endfoot. [11]