Circadian Rhythms and Astrocytes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

ABSTRACT: This review explores the interface between circadian timekeeping and the regulation of brain function by astrocytes. Although astrocytes regulate neuronal activity across many time domains, their cell-autonomous circadian clocks exert a particular role in controlling longer-term oscillations of brain function: the maintenance of sleep states and the circadian ordering of sleep and wakefulness. This is most evident in the central circadian pacemaker, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, where the molecular clock of astrocytes suffices to drive daily cycles of neuronal activity and behavior. In Alzheimer's disease, sleep impairments accompany cognitive decline. In mouse models of the disease, circadian disturbances accelerate astroglial activation and other brain pathologies, suggesting that daily f

SUBMITTER: Hastings MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10381027 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature