Astrocytic swelling

Willard-Mack, C. L., Koehler,R. C.,Hirata,T. etal. Inhibition of glutamine synthetase reduces ammonia-induced astrocyte swelling in rat. Neuroscience 71 589-599,1996. 

The intimate role of perivascular astrocytes in the maintenance of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is well established but in models of brain ischaemia it has become established18 that astrocytic swelling precedes the later breakdown of the BBB such that, although perivascular astrocytic swelling occurs within minutes of induction of ischaemia, extensive breakdown of the BBB starts at 4 to 6 h and becomes maximal only 2 to 4 days after induction of ischaemia.26... 

Maxwell, W. L., Bullock, R., Landholt, H., and Fujisawa, H., Massive astrocytic swelling in response to extracellular glutamate a possible mechanism for post-traumatic brain swelling, Acta. Neurochim., 60, 465, 1994. 

Later studies in animals and in humans confirmed the neurotoxicity of diiodoethyltin. It was characterised by intramyelinic vacuolation and astrocyte swelling, with no evidence of neuronal degeneration. Effects were confined to the central nervous system, rather than involving the peripheral nervous system. The Stalinon episode illustrated the tragic consequences of inadequate preclinical and quality testing, and it was to prove the forerunner of a major disaster that was to follow from inadequate medicines testing. 

HistopathologicaUy, the response of nonhuman primates is also comparable to both rodent and human patients. Excitotoxic lesions consisting of vacuolation of the neutrophil, astrocytic swelling, and neuronal shrinkage and hyperchromasia were detected in the area postrema, the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, and the inner layers of the retina in monkeys given domoic acid [103,104,119,120]. 

Kimelberg, H.K. (2005) Astrocytic swelling in cerebral ischemia as a possible cause of injury and target for therapy. GUa, 50 389-397. 

Astrocytes from the cerebral cortex and hippocampus express functional NMDA receptors which are implicated in both astrocyte-neuron and astrocyte-astrocyte metabolic coupling (Verkhratsky and Kirchhoff, 2007). Astrocyte NMDA receptors respond to glutamate ligands with increases in intracellular Ca (Porter and McCarthy, 1995), NO production (Mollace et al 1995) and protein tyrosine nitration (Schliess et al, 2002). Furthermore, glutamate induces astrocytic swelling due to stimulation of Ca -dependent K+ uptake that is sensitive to NMDA receptor antagonists (Bender et al., 1998). 

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