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Researchers at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, leading an international team, developed a new imaging method capable of mapping sodium concentrations at the individual cell level within brain tissue. Using this technique, they examined astrocytes, a type of glial cell in the brain, and found that sodium levels vary considerably between individual cells, contradicting the previously held assumption that astrocytes behave as a relatively uniform population. The findings were published in Nature Communications.
Why it matters
A more accurate understanding of sodium distribution in astrocytes could reshape how scientists study brain function and may have implications for research into neurological conditions where ion homeostasis is disrupted, such as stroke or epilepsy.
The element sodium plays a key role in nervous system function. An international research team headed by the Institute of Neurobiology at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has now conducted a closer examination of the sodium concentration in astrocytes—special cells in the brain. To achieve this, the researchers developed a method via which they can make the sodium content of individual cells in tissue directly visible, as they now describe in the journal Nature Communications.
Source: Cell-by-cell sodium mapping reveals astrocytes are far less uniform than believed