An Overview of Astrocyte Responses in Genetically Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Models
1
Neuroscience Institute, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA
2
Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA
3
Department of Ophthalmology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Cells 2020, 9(11), 2415; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9112415
Received: 26 August 2020
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Revised: 26 October 2020
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Accepted: 2 November 2020
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Published: 4 November 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neuron-Glia Interactions)
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. Despite many years of intense research, there is currently still no effective treatment. Multiple cell types contribute to disease pathogenesis, with an increasing body of data pointing to the active participation of astrocytes. Astrocytes play a pivotal role in the physiology and metabolic functions of neurons and other cells in the central nervous system. Because of their interactions with other cell types, astrocyte functions must be understood in their biologic context, thus many studies have used mouse models, of which there are over 190 available for AD research. However, none appear able to fully recapitulate the many functional changes in astrocytes reported in human AD brains. Our review summarizes the observations of astrocyte biology noted in mouse models of familial and sporadic AD. The limitations of AD mouse models will be discussed and current attempts to overcome these disadvantages will be described. With increasing understanding of the non-neuronal contributions to disease, the development of new methods and models will provide further insights and address important questions regarding the roles of astrocytes and other non-neuronal cells in AD pathophysiology. The next decade will prove to be full of exciting opportunities to address this devastating disease.
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Keywords:
Alzheimer’s disease; astrocytes; reactive astrocyte; GFAP; mouse models; APP; Tau; ApoE; TREM2
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MDPI and ACS Style
Spanos, F.; Liddelow, S.A. An Overview of Astrocyte Responses in Genetically Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Models. Cells 2020, 9, 2415. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9112415
AMA Style
Spanos F, Liddelow SA. An Overview of Astrocyte Responses in Genetically Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Models. Cells. 2020; 9(11):2415. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9112415
Chicago/Turabian StyleSpanos, Fokion, and Shane A. Liddelow. 2020. "An Overview of Astrocyte Responses in Genetically Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Models" Cells 9, no. 11: 2415. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9112415
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