Real-time passive volume responses of astrocytes to acute osmotic and ischemic stress in cortical slices and in vivo revealed by two-photon microscopy.

ABSTRACT: The brain swells over the several minutes that follow stroke onset or acute hypo-osmotic stress because cells take up water. Measuring the volume responses of single neurons and glia has necessarily been confined to isolated or cultured cells. Two-photon laser scanning microscopy enables real-time visualization of cells functioning deep within living neocortex in vivo or in brain slices under physiologically relevant osmotic and ischemic stress. Astrocytes and their processes expressing green fluorescent protein in murine cortical slices swelled in response to 20 min of overhydration (-40 mOsm) and shrank during dehydration (+40 or +80 mOsm) at 32-34 degrees C. Minute-by-minute monitoring revealed no detectable volume regulation during these osmotic challenges, particularly during the firs

SUBMITTER: Risher WC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2635108 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature