Abstract
Over the last decade, it has been clearly established that glial cells express a plethora of neurotransmitter and neuropeptide receptors. However, little information is still available about the functions mediated by these glial receptors. Since the mainstream hypothesis about the roles of glia considers these cells as providing structural and trophic support to neurons, it is likely that the receptors expressed by glial cells are key mediators of these phenomena. We summarize in this chapter recent work carried out in our laboratory illustrating the expression of glutamate, angiotensin II and ATP receptors, their molecular nature and some of the putative functions mediated by them. Overall, we have observed that these receptors are expressed in a highly heterogenous manner in glial cells and that they may participate in regulating the size of the glial cell population as well as in the production of trophic support relevant to brain repair.
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Matute, C., Fogarty, D.J., García-Barcina, J.M., Gottlieb, M., Morán, M.J., Sánchez-Gómez, M.V. (1998). Expression and Function of Neurotransmitter Receptors in Glial Cells of the Central Nervous System. In: Castellano, B., González, B., Nieto-Sampedro, M. (eds) Understanding Glial Cells. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5737-1_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5737-1_9
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