Pondering the Brain’s Plumbing with Maiken Nedergaard

There are as many astrocytes in the human brain as there are neurons, but the functions of astrocytes in brain function, health, and disease are unclear. Professor Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester and the University of Copenhagen describes recent discoveries that are revealing roles of astrocytes in processes such as learning and memory and how abnormalities in astrocytes may contribute to diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and mental disorders. About 10 years ago Nedergaard discovered that astrocytes control the movement of fluids throughout the brain in a system she has dubbed the brain’s “glymphatic system”.  An important function of the glymphatic system is to remove potentially toxic molecules from the brain such as those that accumulate in the brain in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.  Sleep and exercise enhance the glymphatic system which likely contributes to the beneficial effects of sleep and exercise on brain health.

 

Links:

Professor Nedergaard’s Lab page:

https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/labs/nedergaard.aspx

 

Review on the brain’s glymphatic system:

https://journals-physiology-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/doi/epdf/10.1152/physrev.00031.2020

 

Glymphatic system and Alzheimer’s disease:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8186542/pdf/nihms-1707936.pdf