The DOI matches its Crossref record; 33 of the 34 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Redefining the concept of reactive astrocytes as cells that remain within their unique domains upon reaction to injury
Open accessAbstract
Reactive astrocytes in neurotrauma, stroke, or neurodegeneration are thought to undergo cellular hypertrophy, based on their morphological appearance revealed by immunohistochemical detection of glial fibrillary acidic protein, vimentin, or nestin, all of them forming intermediate filaments, a part of the cytoskeleton. Here, we used a recently established dye-filling method to reveal the full three-dimensional shape of astrocytes assessing the morphology of reactive astrocytes in two neurotrauma models. Both in the denervated hippocampal region and the lesioned cerebral cortex, reactive astrocytes increased the thickness of their main cellular processes but did not extend to occupy a greater volume of tissue than nonreactive astrocytes. Despite this hypertrophy of glial fibrillary acidic protein-containing cellular processes, interdigitation between adjacent hippocampal astrocytes remained minimal. This work helps to redefine the century-old concept of hypertrophy of reactive astrocytes.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Astrocytes are activated in response to acute or chronic central nervous system injury. The activated state is characterized by hypertrophy of proximal processes and up-regulation of the intermediate filament (nanofilament) proteins glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP) and vimentin (Vim) (15, 16).”
From Attenuating astrocyte activation accelerates plaque pathogenesis in APP/PS1 mice (2013) · cites this paper as [16]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Increased GFAP immunoreactivity largely reflects changes in the astrocytic cytoskeleton and tends to exaggerate the degree of hypertrophy because, with the exception of scar-border astrocytes, the volume accessed by reactive astrocytes does not change, as they remain in their territorial domains23.”
From Reactive astrocyte nomenclature, definitions, and future directions (2021) · cites this paper as [23]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Because immunostaining with individual antibodies cannot reveal the full extent of astrocyte morphology (16), we expressed GFP in astrocytes in vivo to observe the complete cellular profile of the cells.”
From Attenuating astrocyte activation accelerates plaque pathogenesis in APP/PS1 mice (2013) · cites this paper as [16]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Further, dye-filling methods can be used to visualize whole astrocytes in mice23, as well as in human brain samples from surgical resections (Fig. 1b)24.”
From Reactive astrocyte nomenclature, definitions, and future directions (2021) · cites this paper as [23]
In the citing paper
“Regarding the form of astrocytes, reactive astrocytes are an activated form of astrocytes in response to toxic materials [49].”
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Antibodies: A laboratory manual
J.L. (1989) · Trends in Biochemical Sciences · doi:10.1016/0968-0004(89)90307-1 · Cited by 5,141
Regeneration beyond the glial scar
Silver, J., & Miller, J. H. (2004) · Nature reviews. Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn1326 · Cited by 3,151
The glial scar and central nervous system repair
Fawcett, J. W., & Asher, R. A. (1999) · Brain Research Bulletin · doi:10.1016/s0361-9230(99)00072-6 · Cited by 1,808
Reactive astrocytes: cellular and molecular cues to biological function
Ridet, J., Privat, A., Malhotra, S. K., & Gage, F. H. (1997) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/s0166-2236(97)01139-9 · Cited by 1,766
Thrombospondins are astrocyte-secreted proteins that promote CNS synaptogenesis
Christopherson, K. S., Ullian, E. M., Stokes, C. C. A., Mullowney, C. E., Hell, J. W., Agah, A., Lawler, J., Mosher, D. F., Bornstein, P., & Barres, B. A. (2005) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2004.12.020 · Cited by 1,688
Protoplasmic Astrocytes in CA1 Stratum Radiatum Occupy Separate Anatomical Domains
Bushong, E. A., Martone, M. E., Jones, Y. Z., & Ellisman, M. H. (2002) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.22-01-00183.2002 · Cited by 1,578
Neuron-to-astrocyte signaling is central to the dynamic control of brain microcirculation
Zonta, M., Angulo, M. C., Gobbo, S., Rosengarten, B., Hossmann, K.-A., Pozzan, T., & Carmignoto, G. (2002) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn980 · Cited by 1,446
Molecular profile of reactive astrocytes—Implications for their role in neurologic disease
Eddleston, M., & Mucke, L. (1993) · Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/0306-4522(93)90380-x · Cited by 1,441
Control of Synapse Number by Glia
Ullian, E. M., Sapperstein, S. K., Christopherson, K. S., & Barres, B. A. (2001) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.291.5504.657 · Cited by 1,380
Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein: GFAP-Thirty-One Years (1969–2000)
Eng, L. F., Ghirnikar, R. S., & Lee, Y. L. (2000) · Neurochemical Research · doi:10.1023/a:1007677003387 · Cited by 1,368
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Astrocytes: Biology and pathology
Sofroniew, M. V., & Vinters, H. V. (2010) · Acta Neuropathologica · doi:10.1007/s00401-009-0619-8 · Cited by 5,196
“In mild or moderate reactive astrogliosis there is variable up regulation of expression of GFAP and other genes [226], as well as hypertrophy of cell body and processes that can vary in degree but that occurs within the domains of individual astrocytes [257] without substantive inter-”
BackgroundMolecular dissection of reactive astrogliosis and glial scar formation
Sofroniew, M. V. (2009) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/j.tins.2009.08.002 · Cited by 2,594
Genomic analysis of reactive astrogliosis
Zamanian, J. L., Xu, L., Foo, L. C., Nouri, N., Zhou, L., Giffard, R. G., & Barres, B. A. (2012) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.6221-11.2012 · Cited by 2,404
“Reactive astrocytes undergo dramatic morphological changes (Wilhelmsson et al., 2006), and various alterations in gene expression have been observed (Sofroniew, 2009).”
BackgroundReactive astrocyte nomenclature, definitions, and future directions
Escartin, C., Galea, E., Lakatos, A., O’Callaghan, J. P., Petzold, G. C., Serrano-Pozo, A., Steinhäuser, C., Volterra, A., Carmignoto, G., Agarwal, A., et al. (2021) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41593-020-00783-4 · Cited by 2,513
Neuroinflammation in Parkinson’s disease: A target for neuroprotection?
Hirsch, E. C., & Hunot, S. (2009) · The Lancet Neurology · doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(09)70062-6 · Cited by 1,984
Metadata
- Authors
- Wilhelmsson, U., Bushong, E. A., Price, D. L., Smarr, B. L., Phung, V., Terada, M., Ellisman, M. H., & Pekny, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pekny, Milos
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2006-11-14
- Volume
- 103
- Issue
- 46
- Pages
- 17513-17518
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC1859960
- OpenAlex
- W1969305530
- Cited by
- 643
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 56 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 40 · 2016: 35 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 30 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 10.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (CA4084314)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS014718, NS046068, R01NS046068, NS014718)
- National Center for Research Resources (P41RR004050, RR004050)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Clinical Neurology › Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurovascular Disturbances
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Keywords
- reactive astrocytes, astrocyte hypertrophy, astrocyte morphology, glial fibrillary acidic protein, intermediate filaments, neurotrauma, cerebral cortex lesions
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Astrocytes, Brain Injuries, Female, Cell Shape, Mice
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review