Endocannabinoid signaling in synaptic function
Abstract
In the last decades, astrocytes have emerged as important regulatory cells actively involved in brain function by exchanging signaling with neurons. The endocannabinoid (eCB) signaling is widely present in many brain areas, being crucially involved in multiple brain functions and animal behaviors. The present review presents and discusses current evidence demonstrating that astrocytes sense eCBs released during neuronal activity and subsequently release gliotransmitters that regulate synaptic transmission and plasticity. The eCB signaling to astrocytes and the synaptic regulation mediated by astrocytes activated by eCBs are complex phenomena that exhibit exquisite spatial and temporal properties, a wide variety of downstream signaling mechanisms, and a large diversity of functional synaptic outcomes. Studies investigating this topic have revealed novel regulatory processes of synaptic function, like the lateral regulation of synaptic transmission and the active involvement of astrocytes in the spike‐timing dependent plasticity, originally thought to be exclusively mediated by the coincident activity of pre‐ and postsynaptic neurons, following Hebbian rules for associative learning. Finally, the critical influence of astrocyte‐mediated eCB signaling on animal behavior is also discussed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Aug 08, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1002/glia.24256
Entities
People
- Alfonso Araque
- José Antonio Noriega-Prieto
- Paulo Kofuji
Organizations
- National Institutes of Health
- United States Department of Defense
- University of Minnesota