Astrocyte facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Astrocyte |
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| An astrocytic cell from rat brain grown in tissue culture. It is stained with antibodies. The blue material shows stained DNA, and shows the nuclei of the astrocyte and other cells. | |
| Latin | Astrocytus |
Astrocytes are star-shaped glial cells found in your brain and spinal cord. They are also known as astroglia. These special cells play many important roles in keeping your brain healthy and working well.
Astrocytes make up a good part of your brain. In different brain areas, they can be 20% to 40% of all glial cells. Glial cells are like the support crew for your brain's main cells, the neurons.
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What Astrocytes Do
Astrocytes have many important jobs in your brain. They act like helpful assistants, making sure everything runs smoothly.
Protecting Your Brain
Astrocytes help create the blood–brain barrier. This barrier is like a special shield. It protects your brain from harmful substances in your blood. It also makes sure only good things, like nutrients, can get into the brain.
Feeding Brain Cells
These cells also provide nutrients to your nervous tissue. They make sure brain cells get the energy they need to work. Think of them as delivery services for your brain.
Keeping Balance
Astrocytes help keep the right balance of ions (tiny charged particles) outside your cells. This balance is very important for brain signals. Without it, your brain cells couldn't communicate properly.
Repairing Injuries
If your brain or spinal cord gets hurt, astrocytes help with repairs. They rush to the site of injury to help fix the damage. They are like the clean-up and repair crew for your nervous system.
Sending Signals
Recent research shows that astrocytes can release Ca2+ ions. These ions help them adjust how your brain works. This discovery has made astrocytes a very important area of study in neuroscience. Scientists are still learning about all the ways these amazing cells help us think and feel.
Images for kids
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Astrocytes (green) in the context of neurons (red) in a mouse cortex cell culture
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23-week-old fetal brain culture human astrocyte
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Astrocytes are depicted in red. Cell nuclei are depicted in blue. Astrocytes were obtained from brains of newborn mice.
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Metabolic interactions between astrocytes and neurons
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Fig. 6 The conjectured switching role of glia in the biological neural detection scheme as suggested by Nossenson et al.
See also
In Spanish: Astrocito para niños
