title: Astrocytic TLR4 at the crossroads of inflammation and seizure susceptibility.
abstract: Astrocytes have been implicated in epilepsy development, but their contribution is under debate. In this issue, Shen et al. (2016. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201605046) demonstrate that early postnatal inflammatory stimuli activate toll-like receptor 4 signaling in astrocytes and promote excitatory synaptogenesis, thereby increasing seizure susceptibility in young and adult mice.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular Neurosciences, University of Bonn Medical School, 53105 Bonn, Germany christian.henneberger@uni-bonn.de.|Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), 53175 Bonn, Germany.|Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, England, UK.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5391-7387
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Henneberger
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular Neurosciences, University of Bonn Medical School, 53105 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Steinhäuser
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D007249:Inflammation / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D051381:Rats; D012640:Seizures / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013569:Synapses / Q000378:metabolism; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4 / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4