PubMed ID: 37958624
Author(s): Wurl JA, Mac Nair CE, Dietz JA, Shestopalov VI, Nickells RW. Contralateral Astrocyte Response to Acute Optic Nerve Damage Is Mitigated by PANX1 Channel Activity. Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Oct 27;24(21):15641. doi: 10.3390/ijms242115641. PMID 37958624
Journal: International Journal Of Molecular Sciences, Volume 24, Issue 21, Oct 2023
Glial reactivity is considered a hallmark of damage-induced innate immune responses in the central nervous system. In the visual system, unilateral optic nerve damage elicits dramatic glial reactivity in the retina directly affected by the lesion and a similar, albeit more modest, effect in the contralateral eye. Evaluation of astrocyte changes in a mouse model of optic nerve crush indicates that astrocyte reactivity, as a function of retinal coverage and cellular hypertrophy, occurs within both the experimental and contralateral retinas, although the hypertrophic response of the astrocytes in the contralateral eyes is delayed for at least 24 h. Evaluation of astrocytic reactivity as a function of Gfap expression indicates a similar, muted but significant, response in contralateral eyes. This constrained glial response is completely negated by conditional knock out of Panx1 in both astrocytes and Müller cells. Further studies are required to identify if this is an autocrine or a paracrine suppression of astroglial reactivity.