Often in front-back, left-right, and top-bottom, cell polarity is a basic property of tissues and organs and essential for the development of multicellular organisms. In the central nervous system, neurons are a paragon of polarity, receiving action potentials in their apically located dendrites and propagating them down a single axon extending from the basal pole of neuronal somas, ultimately ending in basally situated axon termini. In contrast, astrocytes are often considered relatively unpolarized, in keeping with the meaning of their name, "star cells." However, astrocytes do exhibit polarity in the distribution of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and the location of the primary cilium. These features may be polarized beginning with the birth of astrocytes, when newly born pairs of daughter cells are mirror images of each other with the most distant somatic poles having both the primary cilium and the highest concentration of GFAP. The present study is a systematic analysis which addresses these aspects of astrocyte polarity: heterogeneity across brain regions and ages; influence of cilium deficiency; and orientation with respect to brain architecture and migration.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc2332649 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Elliott, Jonathan David |
| Contributors | Fuchs, Jannon L., Schwark, Harris D., Lund, Amie K., Burggren, Warren W. |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | Text |
| Rights | Public, Elliott, Jonathan David, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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