title: Astroglia dynamics in ageing and Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: Ageing of the brain is the major risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders that result in cognitive decline and senile dementia. Ageing astrocytes undergo complex and region specific remodelling which can reflect life-long adaptive plasticity. In neurodegeneration, astroglial cells are similarly a subject for morpho-functional changes hampering the homoeostasis, defence and regeneration of the central nervous system. Region-specific astroglial atrophy with the loss of function and astroglial reactivity have been reported in virtually all forms of neurodegenerative pathologies. Modulating these astroglia changes may represent a fertile ground for novel therapeutic intervention strategies to prevent, delay progression and/or ameliorate pathology. While at present this bodacious goal represents a wishful thinking, further understanding of astroglial role in ageing and neurodegeneration could bring us closer to laying the foundations for such cell-specific therapeutic approaches.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK; Achucarro Center for Neuroscience, IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011 Bilbao, Spain; Department of Neurosciences, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU and CIBERNED, Leioa, Spain; University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod 603022, Russia. Electronic address: Alexej.Verkhratsky@manchester.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Alexei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verkhratsky
authors.affiliation: University of Ljubljana, Institute of Pathophysiology, Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology and Molecular Cell Physiology, Zaloska cesta 4, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; Celica, BIOMEDICAL, Technology Park 24, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zorec
authors.affiliation: Achucarro Center for Neuroscience, IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011 Bilbao, Spain; Department of Neurosciences, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU and CIBERNED, Leioa, Spain.
authors.forename: Jose J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Civitan International Research Center and Center for Glial Biology in Medicine, Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, Atomic Force Microscopy & Nanotechnology Laboratories, 1719 6th Avenue South, CIRC 429, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-0021, USA.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parpura
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000166:cytology; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans