Astrocytes play a vital role in orchestrating the precise brain wiring that occurs during development and are essential for maintaining homeostasis into adulthood. The cystine/glutamate antiporter, system xc-, in the central nervous system is especially abundant in astrocytes and is known to contribute importantly to the basal extracellular glutamate concentration as well as the intracellular and extracellular glutathione levels, either of which, if perturbed, could alter brain development and/or contribute to degeneration. Thus, to determine whether loss of astrocyte system xc- might alter brain morphology, I studied a conditional astrocyte system xc- knockout mouse. Tissue was harvested from male and female mice and gross morphological measurements over the rostro-caudal extent of each brain were made of the cerebral hemispheres, cortex, hippocampus, striatum, lateral ventricles, and corpus callosum. All abnormalities observed indicate the importance of system xc-, in general, and astrocyte system xc-, in particular, to construction of proper brain morphology.

Links to Project Materials:

Additional support provided by: SOURCE Grant

College of Arts & Sciences 2020, Natural Science & Engineering Projects 2020, 2020