Astrocytes: Dissecting Their Diverse Roles in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Dementia.

ABSTRACT: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are fatal neurodegenerative disorders often co-occurring in the same patient, a feature that suggests a common origin of the two diseases. Consistently, pathological inclusions of the same proteins as well as mutations in the same genes can be identified in both ALS/FTD. Although many studies have described several disrupted pathways within neurons, glial cells are also regarded as crucial pathogenetic contributors in ALS/FTD. Here, we focus our attention on astrocytes, a heterogenous population of glial cells that perform several functions for optimal central nervous system homeostasis. Firstly, we discuss how post-mortem material from ALS/FTD patients supports astrocyte dysfunction around three pillars: neuroinflammati

SUBMITTER: Valori CF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10252425 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature