Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep onset is triggered by disinhibition of cholinergic neurons in the pons. During REM sleep, the brain exhibits prominent activity in the 5-8 Hz (theta) frequency range. How REM sleep onset and theta waves are regulated is poorly understood. Astrocytes, a non-neuronal cell type in the brain, respond to cholinergic signals by elevating their intracellular Ca2+ concentration. The goal of this study was to assess the sleep architecture of mice with attenuated IP3 mediated Ca2+ signaling in astrocytes. Vigilance states and cortical electroencephalograph power were measured in wild type mice and mice with attenuated IP3/Ca2+ signaling. Attenuating IP3/Ca2+ signaling specifically in astrocytes caused mice to spend more time in REM sleep and enter this state more frequently during their inactive phase. These mice also exhibited greater power in the theta frequency range. These data suggest a role for astrocytic IP3/Ca2+ signaling in modulating REM sleep and the associated physiological state of the cortex.

Over the course of the past 20 years, there has been a growing appreciation for the role of glial cells as active participants in synaptic transmission. First thought to be the glue that fastened nerve cells together, glia cells serve a variety of functions in the nervous system. These functions include regulating extracellular ion concentration, neurotransmitter levels, ammonium levels, and pH, maintaining water homeostasis, scavenging free radicals, energy metabolism, and neurovascular coupling. Astrocytes also play a crucial role in synaptic transmission, which is the focus of this chapter. Astrocytes, a specific type of glial cell, represent the third element of the tripartite synapse. They can respond to neuronal activity and release gliotransmitters which can act to modulate neuronal activity. Although electrically inexcitable, astrocytes signal using calcium waves which propagate within a single astrocyte as well as from one astrocyte to another. Astrocytic calcium signaling often leads to the calcium-dependent exocytosis of gliotransmitters from astrocytes, including glutamate, d-serine, ATP/adenosine, and peptides. These transmitters can act on neighboring neurons to affect slow inward currents, long-term plasticity, heterosynaptic depression, presynaptic inhibition, cortical circuit function, sleep homeostasis, and memory consolidation. This ability of astrocytes to respond to neural activity and release gliotransmitters makes them uniquely positioned to have a significant influence on neuronal activity as well as overall brain function.

In utero exposure to cigarette smoke has severe consequences for the developing fetus, including increased risk of birth complications and behavioral and learning disabilities later in life. Evidence from animal models suggests that the cognitive deficits may be a consequence of in utero nicotine exposure in the brain during critical developmental periods. However, maternal smoking exposes the fetus to not only nicotine but also a hypoxic intrauterine environment. Thus, both nicotine and hypoxia are capable of initiating cellular cascades, leading to long-term changes in synaptic patterning that have the potential to affect cognitive functions. This study investigates the combined effect of in utero exposure to nicotine and hypoxia on neuronal and glial elements in the hippocampal CA1 field. Fetal guinea pigs were exposed in utero to normoxic or hypoxic conditions in the presence or absence of nicotine. Hypoxia increased the protein levels of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and synaptophysin and decreased the neural density as measured by NeuN immunoreactivity (ir). Nicotine exposure had no effect on these neuronal parameters but dramatically increased the density of astrocytes immunopositive for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Further investigation into the effects of in utero nicotine exposure revealed that both GFAP-ir and NeuN-ir in the CA1 field were significantly reduced in adulthood. Taken together, our data suggest that prenatal exposure to nicotine and hypoxia not only alters synaptic patterning acutely during fetal development, but that nicotine also has long-term consequences that are observed well into adulthood. Moreover, these effects most likely take place through distinct mechanisms.

Sleep is an evolutionarily conserved phenomenon that is clearly essential for survival, but we have limited understanding of how and why it is so important. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)/adenosine signaling has been known to be important in the regulation of sleep and recent evidence suggests a critical role for gliotransmission in the modulation of sleep homeostasis. Herein, we review the regulation of ATP/adenosine in the nervous system and provide evidence of a critical role for astrocyte-derived adenosine in the regulation of sleep homeostasis and the modulation of synaptic transmission. Further understanding of the role of glial cells in the regulation of sleep may provide new targets for pharmaceutical intervention in the treatment of brain dysfunctions, specifically those that are comorbid with sleep disruptions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Activation of the immune system elicits several behavioral changes collectively called sickness. Among the behavioral changes, systemic infections induce an increase in time spent in nonrapid‐eye‐movement (NREM) sleep and an increase of slow wave activity (or “sleep pressure”). Using an inducible, astrocyte‐specific transgenic dominant negative SNARE (dnSNARE) mouse line we recently demonstrated that gliotransmission plays an important role in sleep homeostasis through an adenosine receptor 1 (A1R)‐sensitive pathway. It has been hypothesized that systemic infection, mimicked by peripheral administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), increases sleeping behavior in part through upregulation of central adenosine levels. Moreover, as a source of immunologically relevant factors, astrocytes play a pivotal role in the central nervous system immune and inflammatory responses. However, little is known about the role of astrocytes in the CNS response to a peripheral immune challenge. We hypothesize that LPS impacts sleep homeostasis through the modulation of astrocyte‐derived adenosine accumulation. We therefore used dnSNARE mice to determine whether astrocytes contribute to the increased sleep pressure under immune challenge and whether this is a result of changes in adenosine signaling. We demonstrate that dnSNARE‐mediated gliotransmission is required for the ability of LPS to elevate sleep pressure as measured by the power of slow wave activity during NREM sleep. Moreover, in agreement with a role of astrocyte‐derived adenosine in modulating sleep homeostasis, we find that intracerebroventricular infusion of the A1R antagonist 8‐cyclopentyl‐1,3‐dimethylxanthine (CPT) mimics this dnSNARE phenotype. Taken together, our data demonstrate that astrocytic adenosine acting through A1 receptors contributes to the modulation of sleep pressure by LPS. GLIA 2013

Methamphetamine (MA) abuse has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. Users of MA report dramatic increases in sexual drive that have been associated with increased engagement in risky sexual behavior leading to higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies. The ability of MA to enhance sexual drive in females is enigmatic since related psychostimulants like amphetamine and cocaine appear not to affect sexual drive in women, and in rodents models, amphetamine has been reported to be inhibitory to female sexual behavior. Examination of MA's effects on female sexual behavior in an animal model is lacking. Here, using a rodent model, we have demonstrated that MA enhanced female sexual behavior. MA (5mg/kg) or saline vehicle was administered once daily for 3 days to adult ovariectomized rats primed with ovarian steroids. MA treatment significantly increased the number of proceptive events and the lordosis response compared to hormonally primed, saline controls. The effect of MA on the neural circuitry underlying the motivation for sexual behavior was examined using Fos immunoreactivity. In the medial amygdala and the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus, nuclei implicated in motivated behaviors, ovarian hormones and MA independently enhance the neuronal activation, but more striking was the significantly greater activation induced by their combined administration. Increases in dopamine neurotransmission may underlie the MA/hormone mediated increase in neuronal activation. In support of this possibility, ovarian hormones significantly increased tyrosine hydroxylase (the rate limiting enzyme in dopamine synthesis) immunoreactivity in the medial amygdala. Thus our present data suggest that the interactions of MA and ovarian hormones leads to changes in the neural substrate of key nuclei involved in mediating female sexual behaviors, and these changes may underlie MA's ability to enhance these behaviors.

Morphological plasticity in response to estradiol is a hallmark of astrocytes in the arcuate nucleus. The functional consequences of these morphological changes have remained relatively unexplored. Here we report that in the arcuate nucleus estradiol significantly increased the protein levels of the two enzymes in the glutamate-glutamine cycle, glutamine synthetase and glutaminase. We further demonstrate that these estradiol-mediated changes in the enzyme protein levels may underlie functional changes in neurotransmitter availability as: 1) total glutamate concentration in the arcuate nucleus was significantly increased and 2) microdialysis revealed a significant increase in extracellular glutamate levels after a synaptic challenge in the presence of estradiol. These data implicate the glutamate-glutamine cycle in the generation and/or maintenance of glutamate and suggest that the difference in extracellular glutamate between estradiol- and oil-treated animals may be related to an increased efficiency of the cycle enzymes. In vivo enzyme activity assays revealed that the estradiol mediated increase in glutamate-glutamine cycle enzymes in the arcuate nucleus led to an increase in gamma-aminobutyric acid and is likely not related to the increase in extracellular glutamate. Thus, we have observed two-independent effects of estradiol on amino acid neurotransmission in the arcuate nucleus. These data suggest a possible functional consequence of the well-established changes in glial morphology that occur in the arcuate nucleus in the presence of estradiol and suggest the importance of neuronal-glial cooperation in the regulation of hypothalamic functions such as food intake and body weight.