Astrocyte heterogeneity reveals region-specific astrogenesis in the white matter
Astrocyte heterogeneity has been well explored, but our understanding of white matter (WM) astrocytes and their distinctions from gray matter (GM) astrocytes remains limited. Here, we compared astrocytes from cortical GM and WM/corpus callosum (WM/CC) using single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics of the murine forebrain. The comparison revealed similarities but also significant differences between WM and GM astrocytes, including cytoskeletal and metabolic hallmarks specific to WM astrocytes with molecular properties also shared with human WM astrocytes. When we compared murine astrocytes from two different WM regions, the cortex and cerebellum, we found that they exhibited distinct, region-specific molecular properties, with the cerebellum lacking, for example, a specific cluster of WM astrocytes expressing progenitor and proliferation genes. Functional experiments confirmed astrocyte proliferation in the WM/CC, but not in the cerebellar WM, suggesting that the WM/CC may be a source of continued astrogenesis.
Authors
- Riccardo Bocchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4105-6807)
- Swetlana Sirko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5950-616X)
- Solène Clavreul (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5384-8425)
- Gregor-Alexander Pilz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6161-4976)
- Tatiana Simon‐Ebert
- Jovica Ninkovic (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4381-0041)
- Gulzar A. Wani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2380-5816)
- Judith Fischer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0398-7720)
- Annalisa Buffo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7637-0006)
- Christina Koupourtidou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8352-1498)
- Sara Bottes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1801-9247)
- Manja Thorwirth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7692-546X)
- Keegan Kolf
- Magdalena Götz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1551-9203)
- Sebastian Jessberger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0056-8275)
- Jiafeng Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5056-3762)
- P Vecchia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5623-4581)
Institutions
- University of Geneva (CH)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Helmholtz Zentrum München (DE)
- Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (DE)
- Neuroscience Institute (IT)
- ID Genomics (United States) (US)
- University of Turin (IT)
- Geneva College (US)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2025-02-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-01878-6
- Citations
- 41
- Primary Topic
- Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 34.53
Funders
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung